U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- For the first time in history, a police officer in Bothell, Washington—a suburb just northeast of Seattle—has been shot dead in the line of duty. The suspect is in custody.
The slain officer was identified as Jonathan Shoop, who had been with the department just over one year. The suspect was tentatively identified as Henry Eugene Washington, according to KIRO news, the CBS affiliate in Seattle.
That murder came on the heels of a shooting at a Renton shopping center immediately south of Seattle in which a 15-year-old was wounded, which happened about the same time six people were injured in a shooting at a bus stop in Kent, a community located south and east of Seattle.
Seattle is still recovering from the “CHOP” zone shootings that left two black teens dead in separate incidents and at least four others wounded before police moved in to reclaim the six-block area in the city’s Capitol Hill neighborhood.
BULLETIN: AmmoLand News has just learned that this year’s Gun Rights Policy Conference will be a virtual online event only, according to Alan Gottlieb, founder and executive vice president of the Second Amendment Foundation. SAF co-sponsors the event with the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.
In a statement, Gottlieb noted, “We will definitely miss the face-to-face personal contact with so many friends and activists. By switching to an online virtual event for the 2020 conference, we will reach a far broader audience. Between the actual event, and future visits, we hope to reach at least 300,000 gun owners and rights activists, which will be important in this critical election year.
“This year’s theme remains the same,” Gottlieb continued. “We’re calling this year’s event ‘Elect Freedom,’ and we will provide updates on confirmed speakers and the multi-media platforms where activists can join us Sept. 19 and 20. We expect to have more first-time presentations and more first-time speakers than ever before.
“We are living in extraordinary times,” Gottlieb observed. “This decision was made after carefully analyzing and considering all of the circumstances. Given the current COVID-19 environment and constraints on travel, as well as the inability of our reserved hotel to accommodate us, we will make this year’s ‘virtual’ GRPC the important and memorable event of 2020. Together we will all make the Second Amendment great again.”
This is the 35th annual GRPC and Gottlieb expects to have almost 100 gun rights speakers participating.
While violence has spiked upward in Seattle and other parts of Washington’s King County, and the Seattle City Council is pushing to cut their police budget by 50 percent, neither the Seattle Police nor the King County Sheriff’s Department is accepting new applications from law-abiding citizens for concealed pistol licenses (CPLs). It has been months since both agencies “suspended” taking new applications because of the COVID-19 outbreak. The reason—some call it an excuse—is that the application process requires fingerprinting.
Over the past four months, Washington’s active CPL number has slipped by more than 5,000 a number that suggests thousands of state residents are frustrated in their efforts to carry concealed legally.
Prior to the March “suspension,” monthly CPL numbers were consistently on the rise, peaking at more than 650,000 on April 1.
Seattle and King County aren’t the only Washington agencies that suspended the taking of new CPL applications, a decision that appears to be in violation of state law, which includes the following (emphasis added):
“The chief of police of a municipality or the sheriff of a county shall within thirty days after the filing of an application of any person, issue a license to such person to carry a pistol concealed on his or her person within this state for five years from date of issue, for the purposes of protection or while engaged in business, sport, or while traveling. However, if the applicant does not have a valid permanent Washington driver’s license or Washington state identification card or has not been a resident of the state for the previous consecutive ninety days, the issuing authority shall have up to sixty days after the filing of the application to issue a license. The issuing authority shall not refuse to accept completed applications for concealed pistol licenses during regular business hours.”
There is no exemption for a viral outbreak, and a suspension that continues for months could present a legal problem.
Visitors to the Seattle Police website find this message:
“To protect the health and safety of our staff and customers, and to help mitigate the impact of COVID-19, the Seattle Police Department has closed police headquarters front counter services and our precinct facilities to the public. Closures will be extended until further notice.”
A similar notice appears on the King County Sheriff’s website:
“Until further notice, in an abundance of caution our in-person lobby hours of operation are 10:00 am – 2:00 pm. We are unable to provide fingerprinting services at this time. We are unable to process NEW concealed Pistol License applications at this time. We will continue to process CPL Renewal and Replacement applications. Thank you for your patience and understanding.”
However, the KCSO does provide an online link to a CPL application form, but without the fingerprints, would-be applicants are stuck, although there are private fingerprinting services available.
Unfortunately, according to a KCSO spokesman, the CPL processing unit has advised the following: “Fingerprints are part of the application process and will be taken by the LEA processing the application. Fingerprints are submitted electronically from our print system. The fee for prints is inclusive in the application fee. We will not process any Original CPL applications at this time. No exceptions.”
With violence tucking upward, just how long citizens are expected to remain patient is up for speculation.
Other agencies are opening back up. Cowlitz County, for example, publishes an application form online and says this on its website:
“Due to an expected influx of fingerprints, please expect a delay when you come in. There are only two people allowed in the lobby at a time and masks are required, they will be provided if you do not have one. Before we take you back for fingerprints, we will have you sanitize your hands and ask you a couple basic questions. Thank you for your patience as we work through this.”
Citizens must apply for a CPL in their county/city of residence, so if Cowlitz County can do this, why can’t King or any other jurisdiction? Demand for carry licenses is not likely to diminish with this new violence spike. The slaying of a Bothell cop isn’t likely to change things either.
In a remarkable coincidence, Paul Pastor, the popular longtime sheriff of Pierce County—who will be retiring later this year following a long career in law enforcement—recently posted a message on Facebook that attracted hundreds of reactions and more than 60 supportive comments. At the time, there had been 116 law enforcement deaths so far in 2020, including 27 by gunfire. Pierce neighbors King County to the south.
“Those We Have Lost
“As I look at the law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty so far this year (end of first week in July), I am concerned.
I am concerned that so far this year, we have lost 116 men and women nationwide to line of duty death.116 who serve as officers as deputies and as troopers. 116 which is 38% higher than this time last year.
“We have lost 32 to gunfire or other felony assaults. And we have lost 51 to COVID infections. Of the 33 remaining, 23 were due to vehicle accidents. Usually those lost to vehicle accidents outnumber those who are lost to gunfire and felony assaults. Not this year.
“As I have said before, these people put their lives at risk and the well-being of their families at risk for us. If this trend continues, and I pray that it does not, we will lose over two hundred men and women in the line of duty making 2020 one of the highest years of loss in the last 15 years.
“Yes, I believe in ethical conduct in police service. And yes, I believe in accountability. I have a very long track record of enforcing accountability through discipline and dismissal.
“I am also concerned about an environment in which I believe we do not do enough to protect the lives and safety of the many men and women who take risks to protect us.”
AmmoLand News spoke exclusively with Pastor, learning his frustration at politicians around the country—including Seattle—who are determined to gut local law enforcement in what appears to many conservatives to be an effort to appease the Far Left.
“We are losing too many people,” Pastor said, with a tone of sadness, “and I’ve gone to too many police funerals. I don’t want to go to any more.”
But now with the slaying of Bothell’s Officer Shoop, he’s probably going to attend that one, too.
Pastor’s career behind the badge includes service in the sheriff’s department in the mid-1980s. He left in 1991 to be Police Chief in Everett, a city north of Seattle in neighboring Snohomish County. He moved on to be Undersheriff in Clark County along the Columbia River immediately north of Portland, Oregon. He returned to Pierce County four years later as second-in-command and then became sheriff for more than a dozen years.
Pastor understands violent confrontations, something he believes most people do not.
“People have a misconception that combat is choreographed,” he observed. “They watch it on television where Jackie Chan can defeat 18 guys. In the real world it isn’t choreographed…This imaginary idea that there are experts at combat and physical confrontation; there are veterans and survivors, not experts.
“Many people have never been in a physical fight in their lives,” he stated.
Pastor added something else: “I don’t understand the approach to defunding police… I think it’s a slogan rather than a thought-out position.”
There is no small irony in the current push to defund police agencies. People who promote this idea are typically anti-gun-rights. The Seattle City Council is totally on the political left, including Councilwoman Kshama Sawant, a self-identified Socialist.
So when they declare war on police, it leaves private citizens concerned for their personal safety. Over the past few months, FBI background check data indicates record gun sales that began with the coronavirus outbreak and shifted into high gear when cities erupted in rioting and property destruction.
“I know people are concerned about disorder,” Pastor acknowledged. “When people talk about defunding the police, that makes them nervous.”
When it happened in Minneapolis following George Floyd’s death while being restrained by four officers who have since been fired and charged with felonies, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms advised local residents to “arm themselves.” While Minneapolis paid for private security for at least three council members, CCRKBA’s Alan Gottlieb noted that average citizens don’t have that luxury, and with arbitrary cuts to police, people will be their own first responders. CCRKBA is advising King County and Seattle residents to demand their respective agencies resume taking CPL applications.
Washington, say many long-time resident gun owners, had decent gun laws until the billionaire-backed gun prohibition lobby—based in Seattle by no small coincidence—began buying gun control via public initiative campaigns. As the gun laws have become stricter beginning with passage of Initiative 594 in 2014, the number of annual homicides has crept upwards.
And this thought may be entering a few minds: If someone is willing to kill an armed police officer or open fire on people at a bus stop or in a Target store, what’s next?
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About Dave Workman
Dave Workman is a senior editor at TheGunMag.com and Liberty Park Press, author of multiple books on the Right to Keep & Bear Arms and formerly an NRA-certified firearms instructor.
My thoughts are apply anyway, keep a copy of the application with you, and carry what you need to protect yourselves and loved ones. This is a Shall Issue state and suspending issuance of CPLs may not be allowed by law, only a court case will settle that question.
Exactly. Thanks for reading and sharing. I’m already hearing from people in other states facing the same issue.
And I thought we had it bad here in Montana, where, as of today, I can no longer buy anything at my local gas station without wearing a mask, which is not legally required in this State, anywhere. I’m going to continue buying hot dogs and gas there, and wait to see if they insist on pumping the gas back out of my tank because I won’t wear a mask. I wonder how many times it will take before they get the hint! I’m guessing that they will just “suggest” that I put a mask on while pointing at the… Read more »
“… it feels really good to be a thorn in the side of idiots and fools!” I love it! Well said!!
I may plagiarize it occasionally, if you don’t mind… 🙂
Feel free! The more the better! 🙂
Its not really a right to not have to wear a mask in a store. I am just as insulted by it as anyone, but I was talking to a civil rights lawyer and he said that he’s been getting a lot of complaints recently about it. However, there is nothing to sue about. It is perfectly fine legally for a store to say that they don’t trust you to sneeze on each other. Costco in my town has the same policy. In my opinion, what you are doing is great! They will have to get over all of this… Read more »
private property owners can set rules. no shoes, no shirt, no service, now add mask to the list. i have had several discussions about wearing my mask. if required, with owners/managers/employees about wearing them. mostly it has been on how i wear it, not if i have. i won’t follow rules concerning 2A, if you don’t know i have it, you don’t know. that is unless they have metal detectors, then i have no choice. but, how many private businesses have them? it is obvious the left cares little about the deaths from firearms caused by criminals who possess them.… Read more »
Here in the People’s Republic of ILL, all businesses make it their policy to require all patrons to wear a mask inside the business. Nothing is said about the Tyrant PRICKster threatening to revoke the business license of any business who does not make his “order” their policy. Seems like coercion to me. It would be interesting to see how that government coercion factors in a law suit?
🙂 It was sooner, at least in Glasgow, MT, USA! I just filled up there yesterday. Nobody handing out masks at the doors like the first day, but every door and aisle have big signs: “MASKS REQUIRED AT ALL TIMES!”, which I, OFC, studiously ignored. While waiting in line to pay my bill, I noticed that not only was everyone else (except for one old lady…) ignoring the signs also, but so were the two cashiers! All they said to me was have a nice day. It would appear that the corporate plan to oppress the sheep is not working… Read more »
they could swat you and have the police kill you like the valu-mart in ontario canada did a 73 yo man.
The “mask,” thingy, is all about getting “mail in voting.” If they can get that all the libs will have to do is announce that everybody voted left, they won’t even have to count the ballots.
As it stands, they know their, “guy,” doesn’t stand a chance.
The “fear” factor behind the mask is what they are counting on to get them the mail in ballot.
Idiots and fools live in fear.
Would like to help you with the mask protest, but 99% of the gas stations I’ve been to require “pay before pumping “ or a credit card transaction prior to pumping.
last week was out on my roadbike doing errands. Stopped by mo bank to fling a few sheckels in, and was “greeted” at the lobby entrance with the news that “you have to wear a mask”. Rather a bossy type female was the bearer of the news. I said “I don’t own one”. She said there are some on the table over there. I glanced, and said “I REALLY cannot stand wearing thjose things”. She said “well the governor says we have to. I said “well, Jay does not have the authority to make such a law”. Then I acted… Read more »
There is this thing called proofreading.
I was talking to a lady and her husband this morning in front of Wal Mart. They refused to go in because of the mandatory mask thing from the governor. She said what infuriated her the most was, she went down and signed up for covid testing and went to wait in line. She got a call from her daughter in an emergency situation and left without getting the test. Three hours later she got a call from the health department telling her she was to quarantine herself because she tested positive. When she informed the lady she did not… Read more »
Anecdote here , I read about a mother/ daughter in line here (Fl.) for testing and, upon seeing the med techs gouging deeply into peoples noses, pulled out of line and left. Five days later the letter comes saying they both were positive. In another case a couple signed up but couldn’t make it and were also pronounced positive. Both incidents were in Hillsborough County, Fl. Multiple reports on local TV concur that many testing sites report 100% positive results. Gotta keep those numbers up.
The left are hoping to keep this up to destroy the economy and cause the mail in ballot thingy, soros is pushing that pretty hard. How many thousand have been done like that? My neighbor works at the regional hospital here and told me they are past ready for the mask to come off. She said it is making a lot of the people there who normally vote dem to think twice about that and are openly saying they are voting Trump this year. They said at least he gets something done to help the American people, the dems are… Read more »
Knute, I’m an older guy with some health issues, I wear a mask in public for ME. I don’t think it should be mandatory…everyone should take their own risks, as they wish, but don’t complain if they catch Covid.
No where in the 2A does it say void when there is a flu bug.
Thanks for your hard work Dave, your articles are outstanding.
It seems the reason the left wants to disarm citizens and now police is because the left are outlaws and only want outlaws armed to back them up.
Law abiding citizens are enemies of the lawless left.
This is why you never ask your tyrants for permission to carry in anyway, buy, sel, trade or own arms. If this doesn’t wake people up to repeal these Unconstitutional laws, don’t know what will.
It seems to me that we’re building the border wall in the wrong location; it needs to be at the eastern borders of Washington, Oregon, and California.
The only benefit there would be that we who want to live in peace and happen to be within that proposed wall would then be able to rise up, gather together and purge the rot from within our borders, certain that no “outside help” could come in and tilt the scales.
The reason—some call it an excuse—is that the application process requires fingerprinting. I’ll lay any amount at the highest odds that the perp who shot the officer north of Settle had his fingerprints taken shortly after being taken in to custody. Need to find a dozen or so people, preferably in various jurisdictions that are denying new CPL applications, to launch a state and/or federal lawsuit. Damand an injunction for immediate relief, EITHER CPS applicatioins start getting processed NOW, or the requirement for them as a precondition of execising one’s right to arms be suspended. Better yet, done away with.… Read more »
The police are supposed to protect citizens by enforcing the law yet it looks like some in the state of Washington are breaking the law by not following the state constitution and the national constitution, maybe the feds need to arrest them for not being in compliance with the law.
Dave: This is not the first area to experience this. Florida CHP’s are administered by the Department of Agriculture (believe it or not) and head of that Department, Commissioner Nikki Fried, is rabidly anti-gun. She is using the “Covid 19” excuse to bring to a halt the processing and issuance of all permits.
I got my cc about three years ago, the process was easy the admin time was 36 days. A friend recently moved here and applied for his cc four weeks ago and received his in two weeks. I know that there were issues months ago but was fixed magically when Nikki was sued for not doing her job. I also know someone who just applied this week…we’ll see how long it takes now.(BTW) takes better part of a day to apply due to Covid and VOLUME. Looks as if LOTS of people have gotten the message.
If the so called authorities cannot or will not properly provide law enforcement, it’s ultimately up to individuals, permission or not. Since the state and local governments have abandoned it’s citizenry, what good is due process when there is none?
The governor, AG, assembly, mayors, city councils who permit lawlessness must be permanently removed from office or else this will continue. The ballot box cannot wait for these real criminals to be removed from office, authoritarians in lawful positions are the real reason we are in this predicament.
Guns for ANTIFA, BLM and other thugs, but not for the law-abiding.
Welcome to the Slum, formerly known as the greater Seattle Metro area. How sad.
At this point in Seattle, who cares? The criminals don’t bother with such formalities and nobody is prosecuting them.
That certainly is the impression local authorities have created. Thanks for reading and sharing.
Sooner or later people are just going to suggest that the “authorities” impregnate themselves and engage in extra legal constitutional carry and using the defense, necessitas non habet legem if arrested. This is not good as it undermines the rule of law. They would be right, and in their rights, But it would still weaken the state in a way that does not necessarily enhance or protect the rights of the people.
LOL! I was doing that here in Oklahoma starting back in 1976. Did it “extra legally” until they passed CCW.
If you don’t want the “rule of law” undermined don’t pass unjust laws. It really is just that simple.
Liberalism is a mental disorder. The proof is everywhere you look. A total nutjob thinks everyone else is crazy but them. There you go! Trump 2020.
And another reason for me to eliminate police. Sheriffs are the law of the land. How many criminals have they fingerprinted ? LOL
May I suggest a solution:
MISSION: to create a class of Americans that are willing to protect and defend themselves, their families, and their communities from violent actors in turbulent times. We are a pro-active class that is PREPARED to MOBILIZE and DEFEND our country from all enemies foreign and domestic.
https://www.americancontingency.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLbbyf349Is&t=1148s