County sees spike in concealed weapon permit requests

Shawn Boyes, left, and Clark Pederson apply for concealed pistol licenses in the lobby of the Clark County Jail. Boyes said he wants the license so he can protect his family. (Photos by STEVEN LANE/The Columbian)

Clark Pederson, left, is fingerprinted by sheriff’s cadet Emilio Villagrana as he applies for a concealed pistol license in the lobby of the Clark County Jail.

Clark Pederson applied for a concealed pistol license six days after his parents gave him a Springfield XD .45-caliber semiautomatic for Christmas.

The permit will allow him to wear the loaded gun in a shoulder holster or otherwise hidden from view.

“I want it just in case something did happen, just being prepared,” said Pederson, 21, a Vancouver resident and junior majoring in communications at Washington State University in Pullman.

“Even if I don’t carry (the pistol) around, I want to be knowing that I can if I need to,” he said.

Shawn Boyes, 30, a bank supervisor who lives in Orchards, applied for the license because he wants to protect his wife and 1-year-old son.

“If I went somewhere by myself, I wouldn’t take the gun,” he said. “It’s more for when I go out with my family, just protection for them.”

Boyes, a former U.S. Marine, said he’s concerned about crime.

“There’s some messed-up stuff going on,” he said.

The two men aren’t alone.

The number of applications is growing, and there are several reasons why.

“They think Obama is going to restrict gun use,” said Cami Keene, a support specialist working behind the counter in the upstairs lobby of the Clark County Jail.

She’s assisted by cadets, who are college students interested in a law-enforcement career, and who ink the applicants’ fingertips onto official cards.

The prints later will be scanned into computer databases.

The application fee is $55.25 for a new permit.

In the last six months of 2007, there were 1,889 applications in Clark County, and 2,061 for the same period through Dec. 24 of 2008, an increase of 172 applications or 9 percent.

The numbers include new, renewal and replacement applications.

And the pace has quickened in recent months, since news of the recession and the Obama victory dominated the news.

In December, about 330 people applied at the jail, an official said.

The trend is mirrored in Oregon, where pistol permit applications are up, according to the Associated Press.

In addition, gun sales here and in the Portland area are on the increase, retailers have said.

There’s a distinction, however. You don’t need a permit to own a pistol, just to carry it concealed.

Not every applicant gets a permit. A criminal history or mental health problems can disqualify a person.

Drawing upon the tragedies of the past, the application form is especially inquisitive about domestic-violence assault convictions.

Under federal law, anyone convicted of domestic violence assault — regardless of the date or place, or whether the crime was a felony or misdemeanor — is prohibited from possessing any firearm.

By Washington law, other prohibitive domestic violence crimes besides assault, if committed on or after July 1, 1993, include coercion, stalking, second-degree reckless endangerment, first-degree criminal trespass and violating a judge’s protection or no-contact order.

Washington law also bars anyone who was convicted of any felony crime here or elsewhere.

Keene, one of two specialists who perform background checks, said in late December she’d turned down 13 applicants in 2008.

Specialists have access to local, state and nationwide databases.

It can take 30 days for a Washington resident to receive a new concealed pistol license.

Besides looking for criminal history, specialists also must check arrest-warrant databases and those of the state departments of Licensing and Social and Health Services.

They also perform such checks when someone buys a handgun at a retail store, which normally involves a five-day waiting period.

John Branton: 360-735-4513 or john.branton@columbian.com.