A new report from the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs (WASPC) shows murder and violent crime in the Evergreen State declined in 2024, while a check of data from the state Department of Licensing (DOL) shows the number of active concealed pistol licenses increased last year.
This may leave Washington’s billionaire-backed gun prohibition lobby, and anti-gun Democrats in the state legislature with some explaining to do. Evidently, more guns do not translate to more violent crime.
The annual WASPC crime report includes the following revelations:
- There were 312 murders in 2024; this is a decrease of 18.8% compared to 384 murders in 2023.
- In 2024, Violent Crimes showed a decrease of 7.6% with 29,036 offenses reported; compared to 31,441 offenses reported in 2023.
Yet, a check of data from the state DOL shows that 2024 started with 693,188 active CPLs, and ended with 699,140 licenses in circulation, an increase of more than 5, 950 licenses. What’s more, since January of this year, more than 10,100 additional licenses have been added to the rolls, with more than 709,000 active CPLs at the end of June.
The 595-page WASPC report is loaded with data, but the important revelations are actually spelled out early on.
“In 2024, Crimes Against Persons showed a decrease of 0.8% with 110,065 offenses reported; compared to 110,989 offenses reported in 2023,” the report said.
It would be pure speculation to contend violent crimes declined because more law-abiding citizens were legally armed, but it there would be no supposition in pointing to the obvious: More legally-armed citizens did not translate to more murders or gun-related violence.
While this was happening, the state continued to lag in the number of commissioned peace officers, according to the Washington State Standard.
“Washington continued to sit last in the nation in police officers per capita, at 1.38 officers per 1,000 people at the end of October. The state has ranked last for 15 straight years, according to the association,” the Standard reported. “The national average is 2.31. Washington had 11,070 full-time commissioned officers in 2024, up a few hundred from the past couple years.”
Considering the rise in concealed carry, it appears more people are taking responsibility for their safety and that of their families.
According to the report, Washington’s population is 8,035,515. Subtract children and young adults under age 21, along with people who are disqualified from having firearms due to criminal or mental health histories, and the number of CPLs roughly translates to about 1-in-9 or-10 qualified adults being licensed to carry in Washington.
In Washington, there is no duty to retreat when one is attacked in a place where he/she has a right to be, according to court precedent. There is no “stand your ground” law in the state, and open carry is legal. Also, Washington has a pretty straightforward use-of-force statute, which states:
“Homicide is…justifiable when committed either:
“(1) In the lawful defense of the slayer, or his or her husband, wife, parent, child, brother, or sister, or of any other person in his or her presence or company, when there is reasonable ground to apprehend a design on the part of the person slain to commit a felony or to do some great personal injury to the slayer or to any such person, and there is imminent danger of such design being accomplished; or
“(2) In the actual resistance of an attempt to commit a felony upon the slayer, in his or her presence, or upon or in a dwelling, or other place of abode, in which he or she is.”
Contrast Washington with New York, where a madman strolled into a Manhattan office building, carrying a semiautomatic rifle he transported all the way from Nevada—in violation of several existing laws—and gunned down four people, including an off-duty police officer, before turning the gun on himself. While something of that nature could happen in Washington, there is a far greater likelihood someone might shoot back simply because he/she is legally able to carry a defensive sidearm.
New York’s dilemma may be summed up in a statement published by the New York Times, which quoted Elizabeth Glazer, founder of Vital City, a “civic think tank,” and a former criminal justice adviser to Mayor Bill de Blasio.
“Once somebody has a gun and is determined to do what this guy did, unless you turn the city into an armed camp — and even then it’s a question — it is very hard to stop them,” Glazer observed.
Out in Washington, citizens there have at least a better chance of stopping such an attack.
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About Dave Workman
Dave Workman is a senior editor at TheGunMag.com and Liberty Park Press, author of multiple books on the Right to Keep & Bear Arms, and formerly an NRA-certified firearms instructor.
