A firearms expert discussed concealed carrying and becoming D.C.’s first concealed carry license holder at the School of Media and Public Affairs on Tuesday.
Leon Spears, a firearms expert who graduated from GW with a master’s degree in engineering management and crisis emergency risk management, said he was the first to receive a D.C. concealed carry permit when the city first started issuing them in 2015 after a 40-year ban on carrying weapons in the District. More than three dozen students attended the event, which was hosted by GW College Republicans.
He said D.C.’s concealed carry permit is the “most powerful” in the country because you have to be vetted by a minimum of the FBI; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; Metropolitan Police Department; the DEA for drug use history; and the Department of Health and Human Services for mental health history. He said D.C.’s firearm laws are stricter than most states, pointing to the 38 states that allow open carrying without any permits compared to D.C., where it is prohibited even with a concealed carry license.
Spears talked about the process D.C. residents must go through to obtain a concealed carry permit, which requires applicants to be a minimum age of 21. He said applicants have to undergo 16 hours of firearm training, which Spears provides as a firearms instructor, and must receive at least a 70 percent on a police-level shooting test. Applicants then must register for a concealed carry permit and register a firearm he said.
“When you come through the application process, you’ll be considered what’s called a ‘highly vetted person,'” Spears said. “And you will have enormous power in the District of Columbia — you can stand your ground in the District of Columbia, you can engage anyone you so desire to defend yourself to deadly force, even law enforcement.”
Spears said he became the first firearms instructor to provide the training portion of the process to acquire a concealed carry license in D.C. residents in early 2015 and received a 106 on the exam required to become an instructor.
Spears said MPD Chief Cathy Lanier commissioned her staff to issue him D.C.’s first concealed carry permit because he was “the face” of D.C. concealed carry after becoming the District’s first firearms instructor. Lanier said she hoped the license would avoid him becoming the target of a future attack after MPD thwarted two separate robbery attempts toward him.
Spears said he advises members of Congress on what to say when mass shootings happen as a public information officer. He said he remembers how frequent and devastating mass shootings were last year.
There were 645 mass shootings — incidents where four or more victims were shot — in 2022, according to the Gun Violence Archive. There have been 541 mass shootings so far in 2023 and 529 at this time last year, according to the GVA.
He said D.C. is “in trouble” right now because officials aren’t being tough enough on crime and that people should pursue a concealed carry permit in order to carry a firearm for self defense. The District passed 200 homicides this year in September, a milestone D.C. reached in late December in 2022, and D.C. is currently experiencing a 40 percent increase in violet crime compared to records this time last year, according to Metropolitan Police Department records.
“If they do not come slamming hard with a hammer for criminal activity, it’s going to just be, ‘Hunger Games,’” Spears said. “So I’m just always a proponent for people to have their firearms.”
Spears said he is trying to get permission from the University to teach as an adjunct professor about gun laws. He said people need to understand gun laws to empower and protect themselves.
“People really need to know this stuff,” Spears said. “They just walk around and they just aren’t aware.”
