There are a few silly quotes like this:

Allen said he is concerned that the large number of people potentially carrying legal firearms in public puts D.C. police officers in a difficult position to distinguish between someone concealing a legal gun and someone hiding an illegal firearm.

“Does that put them at greater risk? I think it does,” Allen said of the officers. “It’s unnerving to the public, and it troubles me.

Complete article:

https://www.washingtonpost.com...tml#comments-wrapper

Thousands of people have obtained permits to carry loaded, concealed guns in public in D.C.

By Ann E. Marimow and
Peter Hermann
March 13, 2020 at 1:05 p.m. CDT

More than 4,000 people have obtained gun permits from the D.C. police department to carry loaded, concealed firearms on the streets of the nation’s capital, according to data released this month.

Nearly 60 percent of the people approved for concealed carry permits in the last fiscal year reside outside of the District, primarily in Maryland and Virginia.

The thousands of licenses issued in the past three years are in stark contrast to the previous decade in D.C., before a set of court rulings required city officials to loosen restrictive gun laws. Most D.C. residents were not permitted to keep firearms in their homes, let alone carry loaded pistols in public, until a landmark 2008 Supreme Court decision declared an individual right to gun ownership.

The surge in permits comes after a separate ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit that struck down a key provision of the city’s law in 2017 that had required residents to show a “good reason” to carry a firearm outside the home.

DC will not appeal gun law to Supreme Court

In the months after the court decision, the police department began approving hundreds of permits. Before the decision, there were only 123 active licenses, and D.C. police denied 77 percent of applicants for failing to provide the required “good reason.”

D.C. police have since signed off on 4,808 permits, according to data the department provided March 5 to Council member Charles Allen (D-Ward 6), who chairs the Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety. Permits expire after two years, and there are currently 4,147 active license-holders, according to the department’s records division.

Allen said he is concerned that the large number of people potentially carrying legal firearms in public puts D.C. police officers in a difficult position to distinguish between someone concealing a legal gun and someone hiding an illegal firearm.

“Does that put them at greater risk? I think it does,” Allen said of the officers. “It’s unnerving to the public, and it troubles me.”

(Legal gun owner fears robbery, shoots suspect at bus stop, DC police say)

D.C. Police Chief Peter Newsham said Thursday that police officers on the street have not complained to him about encountering legal firearms.

“The extent of crime we have involving legally registered firearms is very, very low,” Newsham said, adding, “I think we have too many illegal firearms in the District.”

In 2019, there were 42 crimes involving registered firearms, and most were technical matters including improper registration or storage of the firearms, Newsham said. There was one fatal shooting, six assaults with a dangerous weapon and two robberies committed with firearms legally registered in the District. Newsham declined to identify the fatal shooting, but said it was ruled unjustified.

The District’s police chief has made illegal firearms in the city a top priority for cutting crime. While overall violent crime has dropped 34 percent in D.C. since 2015, homicides fueled by illegal firearms continues to be a problem. The District finished 2019 with a decade high 166 homicides and is on a similar pace this year. Of the homicides in D.C. last year, police said 135 of them were committed with firearms.

A total of 2,299 illegal firearms were seized in the District in 2019, a 19 percent increase over the previous year.

D.C. resident Dorie Nolt’s son attends preschool in the Shaw neighborhood, which has recently experienced a spate of shootings, including the fatal shooting this month of a 13-year-old boy. Nolt, a gun violence prevention activist, said the presence of more guns in the city, including legal ones, makes her feel less safe.

Of the nearly 1,530 permits approved in the last fiscal year, more than half were issued to residents of neighboring states. About 600 were issued to Maryland residents and more than 200 to Virginia residents. A much smaller number of licenses were issued to people who live in other states, including Florida, New York and North Carolina.

“I have no problem with people who want to own guns; my problem is with people who feel the need to come into my city with a concealed weapon because they are afraid,” Nolt said. “That fear drives people to do very dangerous, deadly things.”

After being denied a permit under the previous, more restrictive rules, Capitol Hill resident Archie Kelly obtained a license to carry following the 2017 court decision. He has kept his .45 caliber, semiautomatic pistol in a holster clipped to his belt and hidden inside his waistband, particularly during walks in the evening.

“It’s totally unobtrusive and working the way it’s supposed to work,” Kelly said. “I do feel like I have protection if, and when I need it.”

Even with a concealed carry permit, many parts of the city are still gun-free zones, including the public memorials on the Mall and the U.S. Capitol buildings and grounds. Schools and child-care campuses, hospitals, sports stadiums and certain public events are also restricted locations.

The permitting process requires safety training, fingerprinting and background checks. Licenses are not issued to anyone with a history of violence or mental illness.

Kelly applied to renew his permit in late December and is still waiting for approval. The gun violence problem in the city, he said, is largely not attributed to people with permits.

“Anyone who goes through this onerous process,” he said, “by definition is somebody who is going to be responsible.”

quote:

Originally posted by Sigmund:
Complete article:

..Nolt, a gun violence prevention activist, said the presence of more guns in the city, including legal ones, makes her feel less safe.

"..., including legal ones, ..."

Do they really not know how illogical and stupid they sound to everyone who hasn't drunk their Kool-aid?

quote:

The gun violence problem in the city, he said, is largely not attributed to people with permits.
“Anyone who goes through this onerous process,” he said, “by definition is somebody who is going to be responsible.”

I'll go one more, and wager that 'largely' in that first sentence could be replaced by 'entirely', not that a WaPo reporter would ever print that. Has there ever been a legally-permitted firearm used in a crime in DC?

"....and here are their addresses...."

Probably CNN didn't have them, or would have published.


"DC will not appeal gun law to Supreme Court"

-Because it would get Kavan-Suched!!!

I doubt the average DC citizen even thinks about this issue, let alone "feeling less safe". Only dyed-in-the-wool anti-gunners have such on their (alleged) minds.

flashguy

quote:

Originally posted by joel9507:
Has there ever been a legally-permitted firearm used in a crime in DC?

Unfortunately, the article says yes:

"In 2019, there were 42 crimes involving registered firearms, and most were technical matters including improper registration or storage of the firearms, Newsham said. There was one fatal shooting, six assaults with a dangerous weapon and two robberies committed with firearms legally registered in the District. Newsham declined to identify the fatal shooting, but said it was ruled unjustified."

Leaving out the technical issues, what it doesn't say was how many firearms were used in the nine dangerous crimes and whether those legally registered firearms involved in those crimes were used by the legal registrant or if they were lost or stolen and used by others. Even more important, it doesn't mention how many crimes were committed by those using illegal firearms (other than the 135 homicides by firearms and 2,299 illegal firearms seized). Those two numbers that were reported by themselves prove that legally registered firearms are not a significant part of the problem.

(9 legal/(135+2299)) x 100 = 0.37% of the group of crimes reported in the article were committed with legally registered firearms.

If you consider all the other categories that were not included in the article, the percentage committed using legally registered firearms must be practically infinitesimal.

I like to see this kind of thing. I believe Chicago too has something like 30,000 permit holders. Makes it much harder for the anti-CCW folks to go backwards with new laws.

How about an interesting comparison? Compare crime rates between uniformed officers and legal gun owners and see how they compare. I bet one of those two groups is more prone to crime than the other.

A concealed handgun permit in DC runs about $800 when you add up the fees and training.

It is good for two (2) years.

Then you shell out another $800 bucks.

And there are large areas (e.g., the Capitol and Supreme Court) and every .gov building where you can't carry.

If I drove a cab, Uber or Lyft (or delivered pizzas) in DC, I'd have one too.

quote:

Originally posted by Sig2340:
And there are large areas (e.g., the Capitol and Supreme Court) and every .gov building where you can't carry.

The extents of the "no carry zones" are actually much greater than suggested, e.g. including the entire National Mall and environs. This, and the fact that I no longer have to go into DC for a reason other than personal desire to do so has kept me from seeking a DC permit. My point being that those interested in acquiring a permit are probably much more numerous than the numbers suggest.

Funny how the Post article recognizes a declining trend in the DC violent crime rate, yet fails to correlate that with the increasing number of legal carriers. Gee, ya think?

Also, they reference "the Shaw neighborhood, which has recently experienced a spate of shootings" I LOL'd when I read that. Shaw has been a hell hole for at least the past 50 years, one of the most violent neighborhoods in DC the entire time (and that is saying something!)

Finally, the whole notion of an "illegal firearm" is contrary to the principle of lawful self-defense. Give them the terminology, and you've conceded the argument.

Oh no! Not just concealed guns, but loaded ones!

There's nothing to be afraid of Dorie, just legal and concealed and loaded.

Legal and concealed and loaded, oh my!

quote:

D Nolt, a gun violence prevention activist, said the presence of more guns in the city, including legal ones, makes her feel less safe.

Propaganda.

She, Nolt, is a gun violence enabler .

I, and uncounted other Second Amendment practitioners are the true gun violence prevention activists.

^^^. She needs to swap the N and D and change her last name to Dolt.

quote:

Originally posted by Sig2340:
A concealed handgun permit in DC runs about $800 when you add up the fees and training.

It is good for two (2) years.

Then you shell out another $800 bucks.

To coin the phrase the leftist love to use, "That's racist". That most certainly disproportionately impacts lower wage earners who are predominantly minorities. Why are they not marching against this injustice. Yeah right.

The gun may be legal, but shooting someone is most often not. Ever think of punishing the behavior, not the tool? and why, pray tell, does Lexington, KY have a much lower homicide rate than DC, when KY has a constitutional carry?

Doesn't seem to be much point in carrying an UN-loaded concealed pistol to me.

Or am I missing something here?

To combat gun crime, the same method should be used to combat drunk driving: get sober drivers off the road.

Makes perfect sense.

There is hope for people who comment to the (Com)Post. Right now there are about 100 comments, and over half support CCW. One example:

In 2019 none of these individuals with CCW permits were charged with shooting someone in DC, must less even killing them. In the meantime 168 people were killed by DC thugs carrying illegally and using unregistered guns. And yet some commenters are "scared" by these people with legal CCW permits.

A little over 4,000 permits issued and many of them to people who do not live in D.C., in three years is considered a surge? Doesn't sound like much to me. Of course the price of the process and permit may have a lot to do with it.
Rod