SPOKANE, WASHINGTON — Despite cities like Seattle pushing for increased tougher measures intended to push the cost of gun ownership out of control, the city of Spokane has another issue — too many concealed carry applicants! Normally, the Spokane County Public Safety Building is open from Tuesday to Friday, 8 am to 3:05 pm to process concealed carry applications but just yesterday, county officials were forced to turn away applicants as early as 12:30 pm due to the increased volume.
According to KHQ-6, there were 941 new concealed carry applications filed in Spokane. Yesterday, officials realized early on that their forensics division wouldn’t have time to complete applications for any more applicants and began having deputies advise citizens to return the next day.
Wow.
Completely unrelated, President Obama has issued several imperial mandates intended to increase the scrutiny placed upon law-abiding gun owners and gun vendors. Whether or not the sudden rush of new concealed carry applicants and those imperial decrees are at all related remains to be seen.
What is known is that there has been a very vicious and adamant push-back by the anti-gun movement to introduce legislation and use back door approaches to making gun ownership by lawful citizens a bit harder.
Seattle, for instance, is instituting a new “gun violence tax” that would make firearm dealers pay a set amount for every firearm sold and another tax on ammunition.
According to the Seattle City Council’s Budget Office, they estimate this new “gun violence tax” will raise between $300,000 and $500,000 a year. In reality, it’s forced law-abiding gun shops to relocate outside the city limits in a bid to avoid a rather hefty and largely unnecessary tax that would both increase overall costs to the customers and place an undue financial burden on gun dealers.
This also follows on the heels of a “completely out of left field” measure instituted by the Virginia Attorney General’s office to sever concealed carry reciprocity with a majority of other states.
Just when you think the fight is over, folks, it just begins to heat up more.
This previous year saw the introduction of a lot of great legislation intended to expand gun rights and offer more law abiding citizens the opportunity to own and carry a concealed handgun. Now, we’re seeing a similar and opposite approach form in the arena of politics.
Thank goodness the folks of Spokane have largely spoken: a right to carry is an American right granted to all law abiding and eligible citizens.
Unfortunately, those fine folks will have to return at 8 am tomorrow morning to wait in line for their chance.