Metro-area concealed handgun permit applications spike in wake of deadly shootings

On Dec. 12, a gunman entered Clackamas Town Center mall and shot to death two people before turning the gun on himself.

Applications for concealed handgun licenses have soared across the metro area after the deadly shootings at Clackamas Town Center and in Connecticut, including a jump of more than 300 percent in Washington County.

Private firearm-safety classes needed to apply for concealed weapons licenses are also filling up fast, according to company owners, who say new enrollees are coming from all backgrounds and professions.

"We had a 70-year-old teacher who showed up here with $3,000 worth of ammunition and shotguns," said David Kent Frazier, co-owner of Beaver Creek Armory and Indoor Range in Hillsboro. "She wanted us to show her how to use them and use them safely."

Area law-enforcement officials agree that widespread interest in access to and use of firearms spiked about two weeks ago after the lone-gunman attacks at Clackamas and Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

Some said they saw similar jumps in concealed handgun applications about the time of President Obama's first election in November 2008 and again after a theater shooting this summer in Aurora, Colo., that left 12 dead and 58 injured.

What's certain is that the number of people wanting to carry concealed weapons is escalating.

In

, where the Dec. 12 mall shooting left two dead and one injured, the Sheriff's Office receives an average of about 5,400 applications for concealed handgun licenses annually, Sgt. Adam Phillips said.

In December alone, 942 poured in -- about 18 percent of the county's annual average. Of those, 614 applications arrived during the last two weeks of the month, far outpacing the 328 during the first two weeks.

Asked whether the shootings at the mall and in Connecticut precipitated the surge, Phillips replied, "There are bound to be a lot of factors behind that surge. I don't really know if you can correlate it."

saw similar spikes in concealed handgun license applications, Lt. Steve Alexander said. Although the county Sheriff's Office doesn't usually track application numbers that closely, Alexander was able to say the 238 applications received for the third week of December was a single-week record.

The office fielded 194 applications during the first two weeks of the month, a figure that accelerated to 316 applications for the month's final two weeks.

"The folks I talked with said the last time they saw a spike like that was during the 2008 presidential election cycle," Alexander said. "There could be a lot of different factors going into all of this."

Although

overall numbers for new applications tend to be far smaller than the other two counties, the rate of increase after the two public shootings led the metro area in December, Sgt. Bob Ray said.

"Normally we receive about 12 new applications a week," he said. "Since mid-December, after the shootings, that went up to 42 applications a week. We're looking at roughly a 300-percent increase."

Applications for permit renewals, some of which have been expired for 10 years, are also coming in, he said.

"Instances such as Connecticut are definitely involved here," Ray said. "A lot of it just comes down to self-protection."

Similar figures for Clark County were not immediately available, Sgt. Fred Neiman said Friday.

At Cascade Firearms Training in Boring, managing partner Mike Holder said he is getting increasing numbers of calls from people wanting to take the classes they need to apply to area sheriff's offices for concealed handgun licenses.

"I wouldn't call it a huge spike," he said, "but we are definitely seeing an increase."

Business is even brisker at Frazier's Hillsboro business, which is now offering free classes to teachers.

"The surge of interest out there," Frazier said, "has been huge."

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