How long have you had your CCW

[O2HeN2]

1995 (before "shall issue"), issued by John Wesley Anderson, then recently elected Sheriff of El Paso County.

A bit of history for the young-uns...

Anderson is the ONLY reason we have "shall issue" CHPs in this state, IMHO.

We tried for a decade to get shall issue here in Colorado. Every year legislation was introduced to make Colorado a "shall issue" state. Firearm owners from all over the state would journey to the capitol to testify in favor of it.

I remember testifying in front of bored Democrats and Republicans pretending that they were interested and then it would die in committee every time (if memory serves) after a couple of metropolitan Sheriffs and Chiefs of Police would tell stories about how blood would run in the streets if it was passed.

Then Anderson ran for Sheriff and one of his planks was "I'll issue permits". And he made good on the promise as quickly as he could after being elected.

I've got a ton of stories* about being one of Anderson's "Guinea pigs" for the process (he selected about 20 people to go through the process first to debug it) during which it was a great to meet and get to know him.

Long story short he expected maybe a few dozen applications. He got thousands.

This made the legislature finally sit up and notice that this was something they should respect and recognize.

Noooooo, just kidding, the legislature went "wait, we're missing out on a moneymaking opportunity!" and they got to work and finally passed "shall issue" at the state level.

O2

* A minor aftermath story is that I was walking to lunch with a friend in Downtown Colorado Springs one day and Anderson was walking the other way in dress uniform with a couple deputies. He stopped and and said hi, we shook hands, exchanged pleasantries and went on our way. At which point my friend looked at me and asked "Do I want to know why the Sheriff knows you?"

[Hummer]

O2HeN2, I remember that. Great story you've told and I'd like to hear more.

[JoeRoss]

I was stopped by an officer in the 80's. I got out of my vehicle (back when it was not a threat to the officer if you did) and he saw the Buck knife on my belt. He asked me to take it out and put it on the hood. Which I did. He asked if I had anything else, and I said no. He then started to pat me down. His hands were moving around my pockets and I suddenly remembered that I had a pocket pistol in my pocket. I had been carrying for SO MANY YEARS, that I had just plain forgot that it was there.

As his hands got closer to the pocket where it was (when I finally remembered) I slightly turned and asked him why he had pulled me over? He stopped the pat down because with our conversation did not feel any threat. He said he had seen the cracked windshield and was going to let that go, but when he saw that my license plates had snow packed on it, he had to pull me over. (I had feet of snow in my yard that year, and when I backed up to leave home, I backed into a mound of snow) We had a good conversation about how some people pack snow on their plates to hide the fact that the plates were expired, and other topics. He let me go with a warning about the windshield.

Anyway, to the point of this thread. We (both of us) got our CCW soon after that. Don't remember exactly when it was.

[Sawin]

I honestly don’t recall confidently... given the renewals cycle, I’d say ~14 years ago.

[laportecharlie]

I got mine in 1995. Soon after, the local Ft Collins newspaper "The Coloradan" got a list of all ccw permit holders and published it in the paper. Had a few people ask me why I felt the need to carry a firearm.

[Irving]

I think I must have started in 2010.

[TRnCO]

I believe '09

[SimpleGunner]

im guesting im going to be the baby of this group, ive have mine for about 9 months. in 2019 i had no desire for a CCP, but then 2020 happened.

[earplug]

GA. about 1981. 1995 here in CO.