Concealed Carry Permits are Increasing Throughout Oregon After Portland Riots
Jose Nino
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Thanks to recent riots in Portland, Oregon, concealed carry permit applications have surged across the state.
Washington county officials said that they’re receiving more applicants than any other time in the past 15 years.
Bryan Mumford, CEO and lead instructor of PDX Arsenal, has seen business explode as concealed handgun license (CHL) classes have been “growing exponentially” ever since the Wuhan virus pandemic started.
“I was doing maybe one or two classes a week at the beginning of everything,” Mumford commented. “I’m doing three or four now.”
According to Mumford, his classes have complied with social-distancing and sanitation requirements. His students are now forced to wait much longer than expected to obtain their CHLs. This is largely due to a surge in demand and multiple months of closure of sheriff’s offices caused by public policies implemented during the Wuhan virus pandemic.
The aforementioned Washington County reopened CHL processing at the beginning of June. Since its reopening, the county has experienced an increase in the number of new applicants at a level that one supervisor has not seen in 15 years working inside of the department.
Additionally, Multnomah County witnessed a significant 692 new applications in June. By contrast, the previous five months experienced 316 new applications on a monthly basis.
Mumford also observed that the Wuhan virus pandemic wasn’t the only factor contributing to the delay in applications. In addition, he’s noted an increase of new applicants, which could likely be due to significant “uncertainty” surrounding politics and the present administration.
“That’s one thing that we don’t ever bring up in class is politics or things like that,” Mumford commented.
Mumford believes the backlog in applications isn’t going away anytime soon.
“To be honest, business only seems to be getting busier for me,” he commented. Summer is usually Mumford’s slow month. So, if fall and winter end up being the busy months as expected, Mumford doesn’t see the processing backlog going way for at least six months.
Due to these developments, Mumford tells prospective students to begin the process now.
“If they play the waiting game with the assumption that things are going to slow down, they’re going to be waiting even later,” he declared.
It’s become very clear that Americans across the nation are getting armed at record rates.
Republican politicians should take note and campaign hard on the Second Amendment in a time when there is so much uncertainty and public distrust of institutions.
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