Want a concealed-carry permit for your pistol? Get ready to wait
Gun owners seeking a concealed handgun permit from Whatcom County are having to wait up to a year because of applications that accumulated during the new coronavirus pandemic.
Sheriff Bill Elfo discussed the issue during a Whatcom County Council hearing on the afternoon of Tuesday, Aug. 10.
“One of the biggest frustrations that we’re hearing from citizens that apply for pistol permits is the backlog and delays in getting those issued,” Elfo told the council’s Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee.
Marcus Sanders of Ferndale addressed the full County Council at its evening meeting Aug. 10, asking for help speeding the application process.
“I was told that the application process for me would be well into next year,” Sanders said. “A month or two I could understand. I can open carry and I’m at the point where I’m going to start open carrying in stores and everywhere.”
Washington state law, with some limits, allows people to wear a sidearm or carry a rifle or shotgun in public.
Elfo said closure of city and county offices during the new coronavirus pandemic created delays in fingerprinting and background checks for applicants.
“We were taking appointments when other agencies were not and it resulted in a huge backlog, and I’m sure you’ve heard about it from some of your constituents as well,” Elfo said.
Whatcom County accepts concealed firearm permit applications from all Whatcom County residents, even if they live in a city with a police department that also issues concealed handgun permits, he said.
A shortage of staff over the past year lead to the current situation, Elfo said.
“We’re clearing that out as quickly as we can, and we’re making an effort to double the number of permits that are processed per week. We’re down several people in our support units and it’s made that particularly challenging to meet the demand,” he said.
At its website, the Sheriff’s Office said that fingerprinting and background check appointments are booked until July 2022.
In Bellingham, the police station lobby opened July 1 for limited appointments, including concealed pistol license renewals.
“We did stop processing new CPL applications during the initial shutdown as there is a fingerprinting requirement to complete the application and that could not be done safely at the time,” police Lt. Claudia Murphy told The Herald in an email.
“As of Sept. 30, 2020, we began accepting new CPL applications as we had the availability of a private fingerprint contractor to safely fingerprint the applicants. We have always accepted and processed CPL renewals, as there is no fingerprint component,” Murphy said.
Police renew about 85 CPLs annually and process about 155 new applications.
Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Deb Slater told The Bellingham Herald that demand for concealed-carry permits increased during COVID and the backlog of applicants made the wait worse.
“It should be mentioned that the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office was the first agency to open back up for new concealed pistol licenses in August of 2020, and before that, processing renewals by mail,” Slater said in an email. “As WCSO was the only option for a time, many from the incorporated cities applied with WCSO and contributed to the current backlog.”
Licenses are valid for five years.
Some 2,408 CPLs were issued in 2018 and 2,352 were issued in 2019, Slater said.
Those annual numbers dropped to 1,687 in 2020, and 1,756 permits have been issued so far in 2021.
Since March 2020, the Sheriff’s Office has processed 2,920 concealed pistol licenses — including new, renewal and lost CPLs — but not those that were revoked or denied.
“It takes on average about 2 hours to process each background check and then several days to weeks to receive a response on some of them or to research prior arrests,” Slater said. “The 2,920 CPLs processed (plus revoked or denials) took around 6,040 employee hours to complete.”
This story was originally published August 21, 2021 at 9:17 AM.
