The nightly riots and destruction in Portland, Oregon that have taken place for nearly three months now haven’t kicked off the revolution that the far Left is hoping for, but they have had an impact that the Antifa-types and BLM activists may not have considered: a flood of new Second Amendment supporters exercising their right to keep and bear arms in defense of themselves and their families.

Firearms instructor Bryan Mumford runs PDX Arsenal in the Portland suburb of Happy Valley, and says his classes have doubled in number over the past few months to try to keep up with demand from Portlandiers and other nearby residents who are growing increasingly uneasy about the violence playing out nightly in downtown Portland.

“I was doing maybe one or two classes a week at the beginning of everything,” Mumford said. “I’m doing three or four now.”

The classes meet social-distancing and sanitation requirements, he said, so they’ve been able to continue without any trouble. His students will have to wait much longer than usual to actually receive their CHLs, though, due to an increase in demand and a months-long shuttering of sheriff’s offices during the coronavirus response.

As KOIN-TV reports, that increased demand, coupled with the fact that many local sheriff’s offices stopped processing concealed carry applications for several months earlier this year during the coronavirus closures, means that many residents hoping to carry a firearm for self-defense won’t be receiving their license for several months.

Washington County reopened CHL processing in early June and has experienced a higher volume of new applicants than one supervisor has seen in 15 years with the department. The CHL unit has been booking appointments out four months when, previously, applicants only had to wait about two weeks for an appointment.

Multnomah County saw a stunning 692 new applications in June, when the average during the previous five months was about 316 applications per month. They started processing new CHLs in July and are dealing with a serious backlog. Applicants there shouldn’t expect to be licensed until this winter.

There’s currently a backlog of 1,500 applicants in Multnomah County who are waiting for an appointment to apply for their concealed carry license, and new applicants are being told there’s currently a four month wait before anyone from the sheriff’s department will be able to take their application.

Without quizzing each individual applicant, it’s hard to know the reason why they’ve decided to get their concealed carry license, but a quick look at the number of applicants this year provides a clue about what’s driving the increase. In Multnomah County, new concealed carry applications were averaging about 300 per month from January through May, but more than doubled in June. That’s when the nightly riots started in Portland, and as they’ve continued throughout the summer, the demand appears to have only increased along with the unrest.

I’m sure this will cause some pearl-clutching among anti-gun activists and Democratic politicians, but it’s simply human nature on display. Even if you’ve rejected the idea of exercising your Second Amendment rights in the past, if you live in Portland or one of the surrounding suburbs and have spend the past three months watching the growing unrest and the unwillingness or inability of Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler to do anything to stop it, you’ve likely come to the reasonable conclusion that the Democrats in control of your city and state won’t keep you safe. Once you’ve accepted that fact, the next step is to be responsible for your own safety, and that’s exactly what’s happening now.

If gun control advocates really want to see fewer guns in our society, they should be demanding that Democrats take control of their cities and return some peace to the streets. Some on the Left actually understand this. Portland NAACP President E.D. Mondainé called out protesters on Monday, saying that they’re going too far by targeting residential neighborhoods.

“Stop. You’re putting yourself in danger, and you’re putting homeowners and families in danger, and you’re frightening children,” E.D. Mondainé said.

Shortly before making their way to the Portland Police Bureau’s North precinct, protesters made their way through a Northeast Portland neighborhood. The group chanted “stolen people, stolen land” and shined flashlights into a couple homes as well.

Mondainé said it puts protesters and families in danger, while also scaring children who may be inside.

“It’s traumatic for a child to see angry mobs and look at TV and see angry mobs,” Mondainé said. “Consider your own children. Consider your nieces. Consider your nephews. Consider your cousins. Consider those people that you love and their private homes and ask yourself, ‘Would you want them to go through the kind of terror that you’re putting ordinary citizens through?’”

I don’t think many of these protesters really care, to be honest. Some of them may be calling for reform, but many others are intent on revolution. As long as the Left is enabling the little Lenins and the Maoists of Mulnomah County, ordinary citizens are going to continue to arm themselves in record numbers in response to the terror that they’re being put through.