By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
King County is Washington state’s most populous, and politically most liberal county, which sends among the most liberal—and anti-gun—lawmakers to the Legislature in Olympia, and local media is reporting a decline in “gun violence” this year, a fact which could put those politicians in a bind in January.
KCPQ, the Seattle-based Fox affiliate, is reporting gun-related violence in the county has “dropped to record lows,” according to data from the Prosecutor’s office.
Where this will be a problem for anti-gunners is that this decline in crime corresponds with the fact that King County also boasts the highest number of active concealed pistol licenses of any county in the state, according to data from the state Department of Licensing. More guns do not translate to more crime.
The most recent data available shows the county had 115,457 active CPLs at the end of October. At the end of September, the number was 115,363. At the end of August, the total was 114,826.
Translation: As the number of legally-armed citizens increased in the county, local media reports say gun-related crime has decreased.
At the end of October, the state reported 711,564 active CPLs, nearly all of them held by residents, making the Evergreen State one of the better-armed states in the West, with roughly one in every 90 or 10 qualified adults being licensed to carry. Washington does not have “constitutional carry,” but it is an open carry state constitutionally, and court rulings have affirmed there is no duty to retreat from an attack.
KOMO News—the Seattle-based ABC affiliate—is reporting the “lowest number of third-quarter shootings in six years,” with “homicides falling sharply in the July-September period.” This is also based on data from the King County Prosecutor’s Office, the station said.
Earlier this month, a legally-licensed motorist shot two would-be armed carjackers on a downtown street in an early morning confrontation.
Back in May, another armed citizen fatally shot an illegally-armed teen gunman after the suspect shot two people nearby, and then ran in his direction. At the time, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, which has its national headquarters in Bellevue, a city on the opposite shore of Lake Washington from Seattle, issued a statement from Chairman Alan Gottlieb, a nationally-recognized Second Amendment advocate.
“Based on what we have learned about the incident,” said Gottlieb on May 29, “the armed Samaritan just happened to be in the right place at the right time. He apparently witnessed a brutal attack which stemmed from an argument between three people, two of whom were shot and seriously wounded by the suspect, who turned out to have been 16, according to the Seattle Times, and at that age was illegally carrying a handgun.
“In a city where political policies have resulted in reduced police manpower while placing limits on the officers who remain,” he added, “it should come as no surprise that an increasing number of law-abiding citizens are now licensed to carry firearms for their personal protection. Seattle and King County have the highest number of active licenses of any county in the state. Coincidentally, just a few blocks away at about the same time, there was a fatal stabbing, which says a lot about crime in the city.”
Seattle is home to the billionaire-backed Alliance for Gun Responsibility, the Northwest’s most active gun prohibition lobbying group, allied with anti-gun billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety. The Alliance publicly supports Democrat politicians, including Gov. Bob Ferguson and Attorney General Nick Brown.
