BELLEVUE, WA – -(Ammoland.com)- A lawsuit challenging the validity of anti-gun-rights Initiative 1639 has been filed in Thurston County Superior Court by nationally-recognized Second Amendment advocate Alan Gottlieb, but this time he’s filed as a private citizen and Washington State voter.
The legal action, naming Secretary of State Kim Wyman as the defendant in her official capacity, is supported by the Second Amendment Foundation, the Bellevue-based organization founded by Gottlieb more than four decades ago. SAF has become a powerhouse in gun rights litigation at both the state and federal levels.
“While I head a national organization,” Gottlieb said, “I also happen to be a registered voter in Washington state, and this initiative is legally invalid. The petitions were not printed in accordance with state law because they did not have a full and correct version of the measure printed on the back.”
Additionally, Gottlieb’s lawsuit notes that language intended to be added to state law was not underlined nor was language to be stricken from existing law identified by strike-throughs.
“How was anyone supposed to fully understand what they were signing,” he wondered. “Just because the wealthy elitists behind this poorly-prepared initiative spent a couple of million dollars in an attempt to get on the November ballot is no reason for the court to allow them to dance around state law.
“I’m a citizen of this state,” Gottlieb continued, “and I vote. It is personally offensive that the backers of this measure think they can buy their way to victory by ignoring the law.
“This challenge maintains that because the initiative petitions were incorrectly printed, there isn’t a single valid signature on them,” he explained. “It is essentially the same as signing a contract to buy a new Ford and they deliver a used Chevy. At the end of the day, it’s worthless paper. That’s not my fault, it’s the fault of the people behind I-1639 who apparently thought it didn’t matter to follow the letter of the law.”
The Second Amendment Foundation (www.saf.org) is the nation’s oldest and largest tax-exempt education, research, publishing and legal action group focusing on the Constitutional right and heritage to privately own and possess firearms. Founded in 1974, The Foundation has grown to more than 650,000 members and supporters and conducts many programs designed to better inform the public about the consequences of gun control.
WA is trying to copy the California People’s Republic.
I believe that a lot of the younger generation don’t know much about history and the real reason why we have the 2nd Amendment. it wasn’t because everybody had to hunt to get their own food and that’s why people need guns it was to keep our government honest that’s the whole point but unfortunately I don’t believe that most of the millennial generation understand that. When the opinion and mindset of an entire generation can be swayed buy one Tweet or YouTube viral video, it’s scary to think about how ignorant people can influence the rights of Americans without… Read more »
Give them hell Alan!!! I live in WA.
Given the described failings of this proposal, assuming them to be correct, might the makers of the proposal be acted against? Might their legal counsel be held liable too?
What we can see of this initiative, the way it was printed illegally, and the drive to “validate it” for the ballot, and even the format and style of its printing makes it seem that it is identical, or nearly so, to the one recently filed then disqualified in Oregon, our neighbour to the south. I wonder if there is provision for finding out the source of the funds behind this. Seems this sort of conduct should be illegal. OUtside money trying to buy a new law in a state where none of the principles reside? Keep your tainted filthy… Read more »
There has been one? Last I’d heard no police or prosecutor wanted to provide the test case.
Good for you, Alan!!
Though I may not be a resident of WA you have my full support.
CA, NJ, NY and other voting residents of these like minded states take note. You can sit back and whine and post till the end of time OR you can take the initiative and required time, as Alan has, as personally take action.
The one copy of this garbage that I saw had a number of signatures on it that appeared to be invalid, probably because the paid shill collecting them was extremely aggressive.
I thought he was going to take a swing at me when I called him out on his activity.
Good for you. We’re at a point in this onslaught where the Left, their wild-eyed panic driving them to these extremes, are going to become confrontational, defensive when challenged, and I expect reactive, including “taking a swing”, physical violence. Your option: Knock the POS out if he does. It’s coming to that, just look at the siege these Antifa rodents put on in Portland now every day. It’s like an epidemic .
Oh, I wasn’t going to hit him . . . I was going to get NASTY!
I might have been able to build it into a hate crime!