Today is the day that I spend an hour or so with a paper number in my hand while applying for renewal of my state issued Concealed Pistol License.
Since I last had my permit renewed I have moved out of King County and into Pierce County. In Washington, a applicant can only apply with the policing agency who polices his main residence. This was changed a decade or so ago after it was discovered that some agencies were supplementing their budgets by completing the process well within the 30 Day time frame and attracting many more applicants than they had residents.
Another quirk here in Washington (and a good one) is that if you are not DQ’d from having a permit, the agency HAS to give it to you withing 30 days. Places such as Seattle and King County would make people wait the entire 30. Because a market is a market is a market, smaller jursidictions, doing the exact same background checks as the larger, more leftist constabularies, would get them done in 5-7 days and call the applicant to let them know the permit was ready.
If you are a resident of King County and not within the jurisdiction of a one of its many burgs, you can go to any of the Sheriff’s Department sub-stations and apply. But only on certain days and within certain hours. As of late, there is a month wait for an appointment.
In Pierce County, you can apply any time between 0800-1600, on any weekday, without an appointment. But can only do so at the County Building in downtown Tacoma.
So that is where I am off to.
There is one happy note to this story: The building has parking lots/garages available, but I’ll be using their angle-in on street parking. And I’ll be driving Buddy. Not just because he is more easily driven in the confines of a city than my truck, but also because he has a bumper sticker on his ass that states
“There is No Government Like Less Government”
During the hour plus that I’ll most likely be stuck there, well over a hundred people will have driven by said message at downtown morning traffic speed.
Sometimes you need to look for the little joys in life.
Heh, last I had to sit in the Snohomish County Sheriff’s office for about 40 minutes next to two convicted felons who were updating their addresses for parole reasons. They seemed somewhat intimidated by the 6-7 people waiting in line to apply for or renew their CPLs, who ran the gamut from little old lady to young mother to middle-aged guy to me.
I hope they remember their time in the office if they are tempted to re-offend…
er, *last month.
I will note that while on an extended (4 month) TDY out at the Yakima Training Center, one of our NCOs went in to the Yakima County Sheriff’s office to apply for a permit during lunch. He asked how long it would take to process it, expecting to be told 3-4 weeks.
The nice lady at the desk told him that, if he had come in first thing in the morning, they’d have been able to give it to him before COB.
He picked it up the next day.
King County Sheriff’s Office has something like less than half the number of civilan cleaks it has last year and is most likely going to get hit with another 6 million dollar reduction this year. I know because I work in that area and ALL my civilians have been fired and I am still expected to do all the work that was being put out prior with all those people on board. As well as getting all the work r-assigned to our division from other areas that no longer exist. Its going to get ALOT worse soon. But hey, the county council got its pay raise so all’s well!
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