Lonnie Wilson: A history and introduction

My name is Lonnie Wilson, and I'm one of the founders of Northwest Citizens Defense League (in a sense of all of us who were at Claim Jumpers that famous August 19th date).

A little history:

In 2004, I moved to Washington State from Oregon for work. Oregon's economy was being completely decimated by the 2000-2003 recession and my only choices was to stay in Oregon and be jobless or go to Washington, where my chances of getting a job. I chose the latter.

My own personal history with open carry actually extends back to Arizona. During that period of time, open carry was the only way one could carry. Then I moved to Florida two years after shall-issue carry was passed, and open carry was completely banned.

When I moved back to Oregon, open carry was not prescient in my mind. I had gotten my CHL at 21, however I did not open carry nor did I have much interest in it, however I had heard that in Washington it was illegal in the eye of the beholder under RCW 9.41.270. At that point, I didn't have tremendous amount of interest in Washington...until I was pushed to move there by the complete destruction of the economy in Portland area.

I was becoming more and more of an open carry advocate, but what really started me on it was the arrest of an open carrier in Ellensburg, WA for an ordinance that mimics RCW 9.41.270, but went way beyond it. I advised the open carrier (his name is Jason) to fight it on the basis of state preemption. A municipal court judge convicted him, but a superior court judge overturned the conviction and invalidated the ordinance. Jason did it all "pro-se" on the basis of research with preemption that I provided.

In December of 2005, myself and Jim March (who was temporarily residing in Washington) were discussing RCW 9.41.270. We were attempting to dissect it. The thoughts discussed where "How can this statute be so badly focused, so poorly written, and make any sense in light of the state constitution". Then the subject of race came up. I pointed out "Well, this law is so poorly written that a african-american in a rural area could get popped with a charge because of their skin color". It was at that point that Jim had the epihany and asked me a critical question. When was the law passed? I answered 1969.

Within a few weeks afterwards, we both went to Olympia, myself by transit bus, him by motorcycle, to the state archives. What we found was what Jim suspected: Black Panther paranoia. Machine gun nests outside of the state capitol, and an acknowledgment in the records that this was not meant as an open carry ban, it was not considered "gun control", but a target against some weaknesses in the assault laws in Washington. The storming of the California Legislature had an effect on Oregon and Washington in 1969 at the next legislative session after the incident down there, in 1967.

It was at that point that I started rolling up my sleeves. Now with the proof that I had, I decided to contact my local PD, Federal Way.Federal Way by far was the worst city for open carry. Most of the cops thought they could hassle and screw with open carriers. I decided to put my foot down, and go about educating them a different way: Through their commanding officers.

I sent an email to Anne Kirkpatrick, who was Chief. I explained the history, sent the history of the text, plus the DOL response that Washington was an open carry state.

A few weeks later, unbeknownst to me, Federal Way PD issued the training bulletin. I took that training bulletin and ran it to every neighboring agency who would listen. Any agency that didn't, I moved on the next one that would. Skip stopping I call it.

I formed the Pacific Northwest Open Carry list, the forerunner to this organization, so that notes can be prepared. Unfortunately, my job was no longer graveyard where I could hammer the police agencies during the day and sleep a few hours. I long for those days again.

The question I do get is "Why do I open carry?". Open carry is a choice that is as personal to me as can be. To me, carrying is not a choice. It's a responsibility that when I go out to get my groceries or socialize, to actually carry, whether it be concealed or open. Because I have the proper license, I may choose to conceal. I did for almost 3 years. To me, it's not a choice, and I only not do so very grudgingly.

There are some corollaries between my open carrying of a handgun in a holster, and my being out to everyone as a gay man. To illustrate this point, I open carried in both downtown Seattle and Seattle Center at Seattle Pride, and open carried in downtown Portland at Northwest Pride. Though I'm sure that some didn't like it, I got more comments of "Holy @#^, you're actually protecting the community, that's awesome!" than anything negative. I won't go in the closet for anyone. Ever. Whether it be for gun rights or for my personal existence. I hate playing the pronoun game, and I hate dealing with people who ferret out falsehoods.

Some people do believe that I'm solely responsible for open carry being resurrected from it's deathbed in Washington and Oregon. However if it wasn't for people like Sandy and Jason, who were the real trailblazers who did a lot of open carry before I did it, it simply wouldn't be. Also, Jim March connected the dots with the origin of the law and the reasons for it.

I'm just a guy who likes open carry and didn't want to be messed with by the cops, wherever I go.

Regards,

Lonnie Wilson