In a recent CCW class at The Range pistol club in northwest Fresno, students also cited personal protection as their reason for getting a license. “And when things are calm, when it’s not in the news and nothing’s happening, then we level back off,” Mims said. Incidents such as the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting that killed 28 people in Connecticut or the 2015 shooting in San Bernardino in which 14 people died and 22 others were hurt tend to create spikes in the numbers of applications, Mims and Dyer said. “When that happens, CCW applications increase significantly.” He cited the 2017 case of Kori Muhammad, who allegedly went on a shooting rampage in Fresno, or high-profile mass-shooting cases in California or across the country. “Generally what you find is there are people who have been thinking about applying but didn’t, and then some kind of incident occurs and they apply,” Dyer said. While personal protection is the biggest reason why people seek CCW permits, the specific trigger for a person to actually take the step of filling out an application and taking the required safety classes vary.
