Sheriff’s office employee Robin Merchant takes finger prints of concealed pistol license applicant Don Jensen.
Updated
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – Don Jensen has had guns for hunting since he was 13 years old.
At 54, the rural Chehalis man, who also owns a pistol, decided he’d like to keep his handgun closer at hand more of the time.
“I just feel with the times the way they are, I just feel more comfortable with a weapon on me,” said the Napavine School District maintenance worker.
Jensen was at the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office yesterday applying for a concealed pistol license, and he’s one of an increasing number of people doing so.
At the sheriff’s office front desk, staff ordinarily would get eight to 10 walkups each day, of persons either seeking a permit or renewing an expired one, Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown said.
Brown said they saw a jump in requests after last month’s school shooting in Connecticut, as well as some other events in November.
The Friday after the grade school shooting, 36 or 37 individuals came in, sheriff’s office employee Robin Merchant said.
“The following Monday, there were 44,” she said.
The license isn’t required of course to own a handgun, only to carry it concealed on your person out in public.
In 2011, 1,288 people sought a CPL or a renewal of one from the sheriff’s office. Last year, that number jumped to 1,567, with well over 250 of the requests coming in the final month of the year, according to the sheriff’s office.
The process is fairly simple, for the applicant.
Merchant just needs to see picture identification, and then take the person’s fingerprints, their application and their money.
A new license is $52.50. It’s good for five years; a renewal costs $32.
Then, there’s the wait of 30 days while sheriff’s office conducts a background check.
In general, to be eligible, a person must be at least 21, a U.S. citizen, have no felony history, and may not have been court ordered into a mental institution, according to Merchant and Brown.
Sheriff Steve Mansfield said he sees the increase in requests as a reaction where more people just want to be more in control of their own security and safety.
His hope is to do what he can to encourage folks to gain a full understanding of the law.
“And that they really think things through before they use a firearm to protect themselves,” Mansfield said.
One particular concern, that was even a topic of conversation yesterday among a gathering of sheriffs in Ellensburg, he said, is the databases used check for those who have been committed to mental hospitals aren’t good enough.
“We do the best we can to make sure the background checks are complete,” he said. But there’s no guarantees, he said.
Mansfield said to expect to see law enforcement leaders asking legislators to address that during the coming session.
Possession of a concealed pistol license shortens the waiting period when one purchases a firearm too, Mansfield said.
“If you look at each of these incidents, they haven’t been perpetrated by people you would consider criminals in our society,” Mansfield said, referring to mass shootings. “It’s these mentally ill white, middle class and upper middle class Americans.”
The sheriff’s office earlier this week posted to its Facebook friends that they’ve been overwhelmed with the major increase in CPL applications and cautions the process could take longer during the lunch hour. They also may not accept applications after 3 p.m. if there are more than they can complete by closing time at 4 p.m.
Individuals can apply for a CPL at the local law enforcement agency that serves the jurisdiction in which they live. The sheriff’s office accepts applications from residents, regardless of where they reside in the county.
At the Chehalis Police Department, records technician Julie Hampson said they get one or two requests a month, but she’s seen a steady increase since the Connecticut school shooting and the ensuing talk of gun control.
“I’d say we probably doubled, maybe even tripled,” Hampson said.
Centralia Police Department employee Gayle Mulligan didn’t really notice a jump.
“Once we had four in a week, that was a lot for us,” Mulligan said.
Jensen said his visit yesterday to the sheriff’s office in Chehalis wasn’t about mass shootings.
“With the way things are, I just want to be able to defend myself,” he said.
After his background check is complete, he’ll be able to keep his handgun on him and loaded in public, he said, just not when he’s on school property.
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
In Lewis County it can take up to 45 minutes for a Deputy to arrive for help. By then there is just paper work to fill out.
Sheriff Mansfield apparently wants to increase the bureaucratic delays for ordinary people being able to defend themselves from violent crime.
The consequences such laws include:
* Higher costs for those who can least afford it (and who often have the greatest need for self-protection, as poor folks tend to live in higher-crime areas);
* People in immediate danger — such as the single mom with a stalker — being unable to protect themselves until the paperwork goes through; and
* A lower number of people able to protect themselves until the police arrive to take a report about the violent crimes committed against them.
Mansfield apparently isn’t concerned about any of these things, since he intends to lobby for additional restrictions against lawful self protection by white, middle class Americans who have committed no crimes. Too bad.
Here in Los Angeles county, there are about 10 million people give or take a couple million illegal aliens. The politicians and police have decided not to issue concealed carry permits even though the law provides for them. There are around 500 of them issued to celebrities and pals of the mayor, etc. Criminals have a field day, there are parts of the city where you just can’t go after dark and some would day in daylight. It seems the gang bangers don’t bother to get concealed carry permits, they just do. In the last election the Democrats took over all the statewide offices and now have a majority in the state house. It looks like we will have the rest of our 2nd amendment rights stripped soon as they have proposed just about every restriction imaginable since the nut case shot the children in CT. It will take years to unravel it all at the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, me, my taxes, my business and yes, my guns will be leaving the state. THIS is what Feinstein wants to saddle the rest of the nation with.
Real criminals don’t APPLY for a concealed weapons permit! Lol yea right after they go to a gun store, wait two weeks and then register their piece in their own name. Jesus lol
I have had a CWP for over 20 years. I carry anywhere that I am legally allowed to possess a firearm. I hope I never have to use it but if someone is stupid enough to threaten myself, those I love, or any innocent bystander with bodily harm or injury, I will resort to whatever reasonable means necessary for protection. If you too abide by the law, then you have nothing to fear by my carrying a weapon. If you’re a criminal/lowlife/tweaker who intends to harm myself or the people around me or steal from me what I have earned through my own hard work, you and your life mean nothing to me and I will react to your threats accordingly. Just think what the outcome might have been were the right person in the school in Connecticut armed. Now, The Obamanation that has slithered into the White House and his cronies will stop at nothing to try and take our rights away by exploiting tragedies such as the one on Newtown to their advantage. Is it any wonder that more and more good citizens are seeking to arm themselves against enemies both foreign and DOMESTIC?
Gee, should I worry more about the out-of-the-ordinary disgruntled white male, or the daily home or vehicle break-ins by whites, blacks, mexicans, indians, run-of-the-mill any-color thugs? I am rather disgusted at the racial twist in this. I understand that Mansfield was pointing out the recent incidents and made the statement about the people not typically considered criminals, but really, point out the white guy? Is this like TSA profiling – nuns and white kids? Or is it just because we live in a predominately white part of the country and I am just being sensitive?
– Thugs/drugies/criminals don’t care about the law.
– Most crimes are committed by criminals illegally (sounds redundant, I know, but really – it’s not the law abiding citizens stealing guns and shooting up malls and school).
– Before the Conn. school shooting with a gun, there was a BOW AND ARROW attack at a college.
– The same day as the Conn. school shooting where nearly 30 people were hurt or killed, there was a school in China that had the same horrible mass killing – from a madman with a KNIFE.
– The same day as the Conn school shooting, about 30 people died in zero-tolerance policy gun control Chicago.
– The same day as the Conn school shooting, about 30 people children died in abortion clinics in Anytown.
Robert A. Heinlein wrote: “An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life”. Like when one has to protect their family from others. Right on about law enforcement being 45 minutes away. It took the police 10 minutes to arrive in Newtown (that tiny, close-knit community with it’s own police force), yet the new school that the kids are going to is seven minutes away.
I carry a gun because a cop is too heavy…..
I think everyone in some areas should have a concealed weapons permit do to the fact of the responses tine it takes for respond to a call. Like in the Davis Lake area it may take 45 minutes to get a Deputy out and a lot can happen in that length of time you may have to protect yourself or your family. The Morton City police will respond if it is possible but they have a city to protect first which is understandable that is who pays their wages. I know the Lewis County Sheriff’s office is very under staffed . At this time there is a lot of crime in the Davis Lake area we have been seeing it for the past two weeks mostly drugs. I suspect there is more pressure in other areas and it has moved back out here. I plan to get a concealed weapon permit as soon as possible and i do not think people should have to live that. It seams like the Davis Lake area is a area, the the Sheriffs Department high Priority.. I do not think this is the deputy’s falling down on the job but the balance is not set properly at the higher ups.I know every time i talk to a Deputy he or she states they just do not have the man power and i think it could be done changed we are all tax payers.