For serious, when the Spokane police need to put this warning up, it’s probably bad news.
Due to the recent high volume of citizens applying for concealed weapons permits, the average wait time for applicants is currently 2 – 3 hours. Customers visiting Police Records for other transactions may also experience higher-than-normal wait times. In order to serve customers within our hours of operation, any concealed weapons permit applicants arriving after 1:00pm may be asked to return on a different day to complete their transaction. Thank you for your understanding, and we apologize for any inconvenience.
Or just don’t get a gun. Don’t get yourself a concealed weapons permit. Just, you know, it’s fine if you don’t have a gun. Getting a concealed weapons permit isn’t a reasonable response to Sandy Hook. It isn’t a reasonable response to moderate gun control measures proposed in the state, but that won’t go anywhere, or at the Federal level that might get a bit of traction.
I’m going to go ahead and assume that anyone trying to get a gun now is hoping to get in under the wire before the background checks.
Meh. People wait longer than that for the newest iPxx(xx).
I’ve had a CCW for many years because of the work I did. As a judge, I received death threats, and on one occasion my family needed (and received) police protection. I’m military-trained, have war experience, and served in the Army Reserve as a weapons instructor.
The idea that any nervous housewife can go to a gun store, buy a handgun, get a permit, and throw it in her purse makes me nervous. If she ever feels a need to pull out that gun, the most likely outcome is that the aggressor will take it away from her and kill her with it. The third most likely outcome is that she will shoot some innocent bystander with it. (The second most likely outcome is that she’ll get lucky and nail the aggressor before he gets her.*)
* When I was in law school, one of my female classmates succeeded in nailing an aggressor before he got her. The problem was, she nailed him with .22 pistol, which not only failed to kill him but also failed to incapacitate him, and he got her with a .38 between the eyes. He survived and went to jail; her 10-year-old son attended her funeral.
If you’re one of those people (or rabbits, or horses, or whatever) that for whatever reason feel you have to get a gun and get a carry permit, then I implore you to get one that will do the job you’re hiring it for, which is to incapacitate an armed attacker fast enough to prevent him from killing you. There are only two commonly owned handgun calibers that are up to the job, .45 ACP and .357 magnum, and if you arm yourself with anything less chance are you’re throwing you life away. No .22s, .380s, .38s, or 9mms! Just because cops carry .38s (old days) or 9mms (nowadays) doesn’t mean you should. Police weapons are standardized for bureaucratic reasons, not based on their effectiveness. Also, police tactics assume multiple police shooters whereas you have no backup. Cops wear ballistic vests; you don’t. In short, they don’t necessarily have to take down the bad guy with one shot, but you get only one shot and you are dead if it doesn’t take the attacker out of the fight immediately. I’m posting this because of tired of going to, or reading about, funerals of people who insisted on packing heat but refused to listen to this common-sense advice.
Also, if you have the money for a handgun and the permit fee, then find the money for a good training class. You need all three. Just because our state’s law doesn’t require a certificate to get a permit doesn’t mean you should skip the class. I don’t want no goddam nervous incompetent housewives packing iron on our streets, if for no other reason because I don’t want them to shoot me by mistake or through lousy aim. If they’ve got to pack heat for whatever reason, valid or not, then if she ever pulls that pistol out of her handbag I want her to do so confidently and to know what she’s doing and to hit the person she intended to shoot. For her sake, and mine.
If you can’t or won’t do this, then please take Carl’s advice and don’t own a gun. And even if you’re willing and able to do all these things, and do them correctly, please listen to what Carl is saying at least to the extent of asking yourself whether you really need a gun and what for and is that “need” real or just your overheated imagination, and answer that question with a bias on the side of not getting the gun if you’re at all in doubt about whether you really need it.
I already posted about this, but it’s worth repeating, that according to a Sunday Seattle Times article, the percentage of Americans owning guns has dropped drastically over the last 40 years — from 50% to 34%.
Two-thirds of the American public clearly agrees with what Carl wrote above.
To the extent the NRA or news media may be giving you the impression that your neighbors are arming themselves to the teeth, you’re being misled, and the opposite trend is taking hold. I don’t know what the permit numbers are, but with fewer people owning guns, it’s very likely that we have fewer guns being carried on the streets.
That should make you feel more secure and less needful of arming yourself. For most urban dwellers, a cellphone and a call to 911 will produce a better result nearly every time.
What RR said.
Look at the people around you. Which of them would you trust to properly analyze a high stress crisis situation and then use deadly force appropriately?
The Pierce County SWAT team has proven they should not be allowed to possess firearms when they invaded the wrong home and terrorized an innocent 78-year-old and her MS- stricken daughter. Also, KIRO often has stories about Seattle’s trigger-happy cops.
Just something to think about.
Roger, Times are a changin’ Cops carry .40 cal these days. The 9mm was proven to be inadequate (for the same reasons the .38 Spl was). There are quite a few calibers (.40, 10mm, .357 Sig) that are adequate “stoppers”.
I like you am worried about a lot of the rubes that are in a panic buying guns and getting CPLs. It is just a matter of time that one of these people ignorant of the law does something dumb.
I believe there should be mandatory training which includes training in the law before you can get a weapon. I personally know a guy that took a shot (with shotgun) at a fleeing burglar. Fortunately he missed the guy and only hit his vehicle (which ended up being evidence). He was ignorant of the fact he was not allowed to shoot the guy trying to escape. His poor marksmanship saved him from prison.
@6 If a .40 is adequate, a .45 is better. The Colt Model 1911 has been around for 100 years and works fine. Why do they need something new? But some cops couldn’t hit a suspect with a helicopter gunship … and, per @5, it also helps to go to the right house …
@4 Certainly not that herd of creepy-looking folks who invaded the state capitol last week.
Roger,
If you like single action and feel you also need the ability to club somebody to death with it the M1911 will do. I have a DA .45 compact which is much more concealable and with it I outshot my buddy with his hot rod Kimber.