Expanding WA Reciprocity lists

[livewire98801]

I've got my WA, OR, and NV permits. I sent off for my AZ today. Now, when I look at a map on USACarry.com, I have an almost solid map except for New England.

California will never happen while I'm alive, I'm sure.
South Carolina has a bill in Legislature this year to recognize any permit issued in any state.

I look up Colorado. . . their reciprocity policy is simple, they honor any resident permit from any state that recognizes theirs. That's the only requirement. Now, I will probably never go to Colorado, but I may drive through it at some point, so this isn't a really serious issue to me, but it got me thinking.

There are a lot of states that Florida, Utah, and Arizona have access to that we don't in WA that are a lot like Colorado. They'll take your permit if your state takes theirs. Since almost all of these states have a training requirement that we don't, and many of them have more stringent background checks, but none have less, why doesn't WA recognize their permits?

I can't think of a reason. I can't find one documented either. So, that begs the question. . . how do we get that changed? Does it have to go through the state Legislature, or is it something the Attorney General does on his own? Can we do a petition to get it on the ballot as an Initiative?

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[Swedish K]

not sure but I thought that FL would get you most of the east coast states

 

[livewire98801]

not sure but I thought that FL would get you most of the east coast states

Arizona and Florida do, except for the New England (can we give them back to England?) states, except Vermont, who are the only ones that always 'got' it

I never expected to get many of them, but CO is RIGHT THERE, and they have such an open policy.

When I get my AZ permit, these are the only states I won't be able to carry in:

California
Colorado
Connecticut
Hawaii
Illinois
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New York
North Dakota
Rhode Island
South Carolina
Wisconsin

 

[Swedish K]

I go to CO quite often - while they do have the reciprocity requirement that your permit from that state is a resident permit I have to wonder just how tight they are with enforcement. When I had my 07/02 license I added my brother to the responsible parties list just in case - I left a can with him for a time and he called the house to see if his room mate was there - some chick he didn't know answered and hung up when he asked who she was - he hit redial and got the answering machine. So he called the cops and they were at his house - 3 cars covering front and back - called him to meet them as the dog wouldn't let them into the yard to check the back of the house. Once he got there they did a room to room search just in case - no signs of forced entry on the doors or windows. When they opened his closet with the guns in it one of the cops picked up the 10/22 with the can on it, says hey that's pretty cool. Puts it back and they finish checking the house - never asked to see the paperwork for the can or anything else. If that happened in CA I would have been detained until they got verification from ATF that it was legit and my paperwork was all in order. I'm guessing it would have cost me a day or two in jail waiting and attorneys fees to persuade them to return my property in a time frame under 6months.

Granted I wouldn't bet my rights on carrying without a valid permit in CO but I'm guessing that they are more likely to prosecute you for traffic revenue than for gun violations.

 

[livewire98801]

Ok, did some of my own research on this, with some help from my LEO uncle. . . here's the biggest hangup:

RCW 9.41.073
Concealed pistol license — Reciprocity.


(1)(a) A person licensed to carry a pistol in a state the laws of which recognize and give effect in that state to a concealed pistol license issued under the laws of the state of Washington is authorized to carry a concealed pistol in this state if:

(i) The licensing state does not issue concealed pistol licenses to persons under twenty-one years of age; and

(ii) The licensing state requires mandatory fingerprint-based background checks of criminal and mental health history for all persons who apply for a concealed pistol license.​

(b) This section applies to a license holder from another state only while the license holder is not a resident of this state. A license holder from another state must carry the handgun in compliance with the laws of this state.​

I don't know about all of them, but this is preventing at least Texas and Idaho according to the AG website. It seems that the bolded provision could be moved to subsection b. . . that way we could recognize those states' permits without recognizing the permits issued to 20 year old and younger honorably discharged military personnel. I would personally not have a problem with them carrying, but I'm guessing that would be a steeper hill to climb at the moment.

Since it's an RCW, it requires legislative action to change. I'm going to do some more research on what's holding up other states, and will come up with a letter to send to my legislators. When I do, I'll repost it here, maybe we can get some things changed.

 

[8ball]

Can we do a petition to get it on the ballot as an Initiative?

Do you have $100,000+ to pay for the signatures? That's the low end of the cost for a signature gathering effort in WA these days. ****, they couldn't even get marijuana legalization on the ballot last year, and there are just as many pot heads as gun nuts in WA.

It's far easier to get a bill in Olympia than an initiative in front of voters. That's your best bet.