I'm a Pacific Northwest native — raised in Western Washington less than an hour east of Seattle. I have fond memories of speeding down I-90 in a friend's car over the high school lunch period to try and make it to Seattle for a burger and back before our afternoon classes. I remember attending my first three-day music festival (Bumbershoot) at the age of 14, spending the day from dawn till dusk roaming around alone in Seattle Center without parental supervision. For my 16th birthday, I convinced my father to splurge on three tickets to a Maroon 5 concert at The Key for me to go and see it with just my two best friends and no adults on a random Tuesday night. Those are a few distant memories from a different Seattle that I knew and loved and today doesn't exist.
My home state is now a lawless liberal wasteland, and the voters that let it become so may finally be realizing what they have done.
Washingtonians are fed up and ready to take their safety back into their own hands.
According to a press release issued by the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA):
Last month, according to data from the Washington Department of Licensing, more than 21,000 more citizens obtained CPLs, bringing the total to 688,440 active licenses. This new monthly figure eclipses the previous single-month record of 13,932 new licenses set in May 2013.
CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb said in the aforementioned release that the “increase in the number of carry licenses” was “staggering.”
Gottlieb also added the following:
“We wholeheartedly support every citizen who has made the important decision to take responsibility for his or her personal and family safety. This has happened despite repeated Draconian efforts by lawmakers to discourage private gun ownership. It should send a message to politicians and bureaucrats who support defund-the-police efforts and promote lenient policies toward repeat offenders who commit an inordinate number of crimes without serious consequences that the public is fed up.”
Liberal politicians have hoodwinked Washingtonians for too long, and people finally seem to be opening their eyes.
“At a time when liberal Evergreen State legislators are demonizing gun owners and trying to erode their rights, it will be interesting to see whether this stunning increase in concealed carry translates to activism at the polls Nov. 8,” Gottlieb observed. “It suggests people have had enough of the social policies which have resulted in rising violent crime, and maybe they're ready to make a dramatic political shift. “We encourage all of these newly armed citizens to seek competent instruction, learn the laws and carry with
confidence as we move forward,” he concluded.
I hope that the same people that instilled in me my love of flannel lumberjack shirts, North Face jackets and wearing black for 80% of the year to match the grey mood set by Western Washington's omnipotent threat of rain have enough sense next month to vote out the liberals who have ruined a region near and dear to me — which can now only refer to as “the other Washington.”
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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