Gray Peterson
Member
I'm from Hillsboro, OR, and I had to apply for a Washington CPL. The reason for this is that since I use public transit to get around the Portland metro area, I have no ability to comply with Washington State law on transport of a firearm. Simply enough, unless you're there to go to your business, or to a range, or something other than approved, I would be illegal to carry a handgun concealed, even if it were in a locked box, unloaded that was being carried around by me.
So, because of my lack of car, I had to apply for a CPL in Washington, since it was across the river. Also, I have to go to Richmond, VA next month and Washington permits are recognized as valid, but Oregon permits are not (the likely reason for this is that WA Department of Licensing has a registry of permit holders, but The Oregon State Police does not).
I checked several potential places to apply within public transit reach, including the Clark County Sheriffs office. The reason I didn't apply there was that they require you to wait 3 weeks if you write a personal check, and they tell you it will take 60 days on top of that to get your permit. Basically, they'd sit on it.
After doing a bit of research, finding out Vancouver doesn't issue permits, they refer to Clark County, and the other little cities seemed a little out of the way, I chose Camas, WA PD for my application and my money.
Took me nearly two hours to arrive there, because I had to take C Tran 105 Express from downtown Portland to downtown Vancouver, take 37 Mill Plain to Fishers Landing Transit Center, and then the 92 Camas/Washougal to Camas PD. (This was after taking the MAX from Hillsboro to Portland city center).
I finally arrived. For a small city, the PD building was rather ornate. The people there were very courteous, the clerk very nice. She took my money order for 18 dollars, and my check for 42 dollars. Paid for it, give me a booklet to read. Took a while for a police officer to arrive to do my finger printing. I had to sign my permit (yes, they had the permit right there, but I couldn't take possession of it until the background checks clear). Btw, the permit itself is not a huge checkbook size piece of paper like it was reported, or perhaps was before. It isn't credit card sized, but you can stuff it in your pocket easy.
Anyway, the cop finally arrived after about 10 minutes. Got the fingerprinting done (it was old style, not electronic). He asked me what I needed the permit for (Now, he didn't ask this in a negative tone), had any close calls with anyone, I said "No, I'm getting it because I use public transit, it's inconvenient even if I did have my own car to comply with the car/gun carry law, and I wanted to visit Vancouver and Seattle on a regular basis, plus a Washington CPL is valid in where I was going to visit in a month, Virginia". He did not know that Virginia recognized Washington permits. Not suprising, because Washington recognizes no other state by statute.
Anyway, it got done in five minutes, got everythign signed up, and they told me I'd get it in the mail within 30 days, probably sooner.
Very courteous, overall, just like at the Washington County Sheriff's Office in Oregon.
So, because of my lack of car, I had to apply for a CPL in Washington, since it was across the river. Also, I have to go to Richmond, VA next month and Washington permits are recognized as valid, but Oregon permits are not (the likely reason for this is that WA Department of Licensing has a registry of permit holders, but The Oregon State Police does not).
I checked several potential places to apply within public transit reach, including the Clark County Sheriffs office. The reason I didn't apply there was that they require you to wait 3 weeks if you write a personal check, and they tell you it will take 60 days on top of that to get your permit. Basically, they'd sit on it.
After doing a bit of research, finding out Vancouver doesn't issue permits, they refer to Clark County, and the other little cities seemed a little out of the way, I chose Camas, WA PD for my application and my money.
Took me nearly two hours to arrive there, because I had to take C Tran 105 Express from downtown Portland to downtown Vancouver, take 37 Mill Plain to Fishers Landing Transit Center, and then the 92 Camas/Washougal to Camas PD. (This was after taking the MAX from Hillsboro to Portland city center).
I finally arrived. For a small city, the PD building was rather ornate. The people there were very courteous, the clerk very nice. She took my money order for 18 dollars, and my check for 42 dollars. Paid for it, give me a booklet to read. Took a while for a police officer to arrive to do my finger printing. I had to sign my permit (yes, they had the permit right there, but I couldn't take possession of it until the background checks clear). Btw, the permit itself is not a huge checkbook size piece of paper like it was reported, or perhaps was before. It isn't credit card sized, but you can stuff it in your pocket easy.
Anyway, the cop finally arrived after about 10 minutes. Got the fingerprinting done (it was old style, not electronic). He asked me what I needed the permit for (Now, he didn't ask this in a negative tone), had any close calls with anyone, I said "No, I'm getting it because I use public transit, it's inconvenient even if I did have my own car to comply with the car/gun carry law, and I wanted to visit Vancouver and Seattle on a regular basis, plus a Washington CPL is valid in where I was going to visit in a month, Virginia". He did not know that Virginia recognized Washington permits. Not suprising, because Washington recognizes no other state by statute.
Anyway, it got done in five minutes, got everythign signed up, and they told me I'd get it in the mail within 30 days, probably sooner.
Very courteous, overall, just like at the Washington County Sheriff's Office in Oregon.
