Responsibility

 But in its ruling against Spencer, the appeals court did acknowledge that open carry is legal in Washington state, while adding that it is clearly the gun owner's responsibility "to ascertain when the carrying of a particular weapon would reasonably warrant alarm in others."

Gun rights activists have been arguing for years that the language of the statue, amended in 1994, makes it almost impossible for them to exercise open carry rights anywhere but in a rural setting, or in the wilds.  Wilson has been working carefully and methodically to get some clarification in favor of gun owners.

"I approached the city about this," he told Gun Week.  "Everything was done pretty much by e-mail, directly to the Federal Way police chief."

This began in July, and since then, the police chief has moved on to become chief of the Spokane Police Department.  Her successor in Federal Way obviously did not drop the ball, though.  To Wilson's surprise, the department has issued a training bulletin that clearly explains that unlicensed open carry of a handgun is legal in the state.

All of this took time, and happened only after Wilson had discussed open carry with various officers, who typically offered conflicting opinions on what the law actually allows.  He recalled being told by some that not only is the practice illegal, but that he would wind up facing gun muzzles if he tried it.

But then came a break when he learned about the training memo.  He filed a public records act request for the training memo, along with any documents relating to it and found that the subject had been discussed in e-mails between city officials.  In those exchanges, Wilson learned that some people had been arrested for open carry, but that the city prosecutor had declined to file charges on the grounds that peaceable open carry is legal.

But the training memo, issued by Commander Kyle Sumpter, "flat out says open carry is legal."  Gun Week has a copy of that memorandum.  The first sentence reads, "Washington is an 'open carry' state for firearms."

Gun Week has discussed open carry in the past with the King County Sheriff's Office and Bellevue Police Department, and legal advisors with those agencies have confirmed open carry is legal in Washington, and as this issue was approaching deadline, Gun Week learned there is a training update in production that clarifies this for King County deputies.

"People who open carry legitimately," Wilson observed, "don't need to get harassed and threatened with arrest.  That sort of thing is unacceptable."

Wilson said that a small but growing number of Washington citizens are beginning to carry openly following years of virtual gun invisibility.  Approximately 240,0000 Washingtonians are licensed to carry concealed, making the state about fifth from the top in the per capita number of armed citizens.

He views the questionable state statute as a brandishing restriction, not an open carry ban.  Indeed, such a ban might violate the state constitutional provision to keep and bear arms, which is one of the strongest in the nation, and is identical to Arizona's provision.  Open carry in Arizona is a far more common sight than in any other state in the union, except perhaps for Alaska.

Wilson hardly considers himself some sort of gun rights hero.  Instead, he continues to quietly go about his one-man crusade to politely and gently nudge government agencies to bring their regulations into compliance with state statute and the state constitution.