Things I did not know

Washington is an Open-Carry state:

Open carrying of firearms is not prohibited by law although trouble with some law enforcement agencies has been encountered while open carrying in the past, most notably in a case in Ellensburg, Washington.

With that being said, I don’t think I’ll be bringing my Beretta next time I go to Seattle to visit my family, as I’m relatively certain that being openly armed in downtown Hippyville Seattle is a surefire way to attracted undesirable attention from the local 5-Oh.

4 Comments

  1. Nebraska is the same way in Omaha and Lincoln. I do open carry on occasion, but the few deputies I know say it’s a sure way to end up with some fat, metro cops trying to cause problems and earn some brownie points from the city.

  2. I’d not want to open carry in town, especially on the west side of the Cascades. However, Washington has decent CCW laws and accepts CPLs from several other states. Get your Utah non-resident permit and you’ll be good to go next time you head this way.

  3. It’s not really that bad here. If you are on your way to Washington and want to OC, drop by the Washington forum on OpenCarry.Org and read some of the reports. We actually have a pretty active OC community up here in the Rainy State.

    http://opencarry.mywowbb.com/forum55/

    The only thing to be careful of is the concealment statute kicks in if any part of the firearm is obscured, so *technically* you can be “concealing” if your arm at your side obscures clear view of an otherwise openly-holstered sidearm.

    The best OC advice: carry a digital voice recorder so that you can record any encounter with law enforcement officers. If they misbehave you have evidence for a complaint against them. The WA state supreme court has held that privacy laws do not apply to recording a LEO in the course of carrying out their duties.

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