Idaho resident with a Washington CPL
I'm living over near Coeur d'Alene and travel over to Spokane and Seattle quite a bit. My Idaho CWL isn't recognized in WA, so I had to get a WA Permit to carry there. It took about an hour to drive over to the Spokane City Hall and about a half hour to fill out the paperwork and give them my money for my CPL. I think it cost $60 or so. Another hour drive home and that was it. Somewhere around 4-5 weeks later I had my WA permit in hand and I laminated it that night.
Super simple, and not too time consuming. You'll be fingerprinted where you apply for the permit. Spokane is done on a computer scanning plate so no ink on your fingers. Seattle does it that way too last I heard. Some of the smaller population counties still use ink since the scanner for fingerprints is high tech by their standards, and pretty expensive too. The staff at the licensing offices are extremely polite and helpful from all of my experiences working with them over the past few years.
Hope to see a post soon that tells us you have your permit in hand.
Washington is an open carry state and it's not uncommon to see people carrying openly. Down on the piers in Seattle it's commonplace to see people carrying open/semi-concealed and concealed once you know what to look for. I've been traffic stopped twice while carrying in WA, and the LEO's just asked me not to make any sudden moves (duh!). I made sure thy knew right away that I was carrying loaded, so there wouldn't be any surprises later.
Both times they asked what I was carrying and where it was located. Other than that they never even mentioned it again.
I'm pretty sure you are required to let any LEO that pulls you over in a traffic stop that you are carrying. That is, if you are.
Regards,
gearchecker
Last edited by gearchecker; September 1, 2010 at 04:27 PM.
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