Opinion by Dave Workman
SEATTLE, WA – -(AmmoLand.com)- Washington state gun owners are waging a desperate battle against a billionaire-backed gun control effort that, if it passes in November, could spread like a cancer across the country, especially in states with the citizen initiative process.
Initiative 1639 is a 30-page, multi-faceted measure that seeks to raise the minimum age for purchasing and owning a semiautomatic modern sporting rifle to 21, and require so-called “secure storage” with criminal penalties for non-compliance.
But there is much more to this initiative, which is being pushed by the Alliance for Gun Responsibility, a Seattle-based organization largely funded by a small group of wealthy elitists, including Seattle Seahawks owner Paul Allen, venture capitalist Nick Hanauer and Steve Ballmer. It is also supported by anti-gun billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund.
If passed, the initiative 1639 would define every common semi-auto rifle on the map as a “semiautomatic assault rifle” that must be registered and regulated.
The initiative’s authors evidently cut and pasted the government’s generic definition of a semiautomatic rifle and simply inserted the term “assault” in order to capture such popular sport hunting rifles as the Winchester Model 100 and Browning BAR, and also every self-loading .22-caliber rimfire that’s ever been marketed. That includes the Ruger 10/22, Remington’s classic Nylon 66, the Marlin Model 60 and Browning SA-22, for example.
Here’s the actual language from the initiative 1639, and it leaves no wiggle room for exemptions:
“‘Semiautomatic assault rifle’ means any rifle which utilizes a portion of the energy of a firing cartridge to extract the fired cartridge case and chamber the next round, and which requires a separate pull of the trigger to fire each cartridge.”
Critics have also raised alarms about the $25 fee that can be charged by firearms dealers for the additional paperwork necessary to conduct a so-called “enhanced background check.” [whatever that is?] Many gun owners believe this to be an unconstitutional “poll tax” that must be paid in order to exercise a fundamental right.
Further, there is another provision that requires gun buyers to allow law enforcement to look at their private medical records in order to determine whether they may have some problem that would disqualify them from having a firearm. Here’s what the initiative would require:
“A signed application to purchase a pistol or semiautomatic assault rifle shall constitute a waiver of confidentiality and written request that the health care authority, mental health institutions, and other health care facilities release, to an inquiring court or law enforcement agency, information relevant to the applicant’s eligibility to purchase a pistol or semiautomatic assault rifle to an inquiring court or law enforcement agency.”
Invented Crimes
And I-1639 invents a new crime called “community endangerment.” This is a Class C felony-level offense that could be leveled against a gun owner in the event a “prohibited person” gains access to a firearm and then uses the gun to commit a crime. It victimizes gun owners who are already victims of theft, and could be used to place gun owners in jail for up to one year. Critics look at this provision as an attempt to discourage people from having firearms.
There are enough concerns about the initiative that three major law enforcement organizations in the state have already gone on record in opposition. They are the Washington State Sheriff’s Association, Washington Council of Police & Sheriffs and the Washington State Law Enforcement Firearms Instructors Association. However, their announcements have gone virtually unnoticed by the establishment media.
Grassroots opposition to I-1639 is working on two fronts. The National Rifle Association has teamed up with the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms and Washington Arms Collectors. NRA has contributed some $150,000 to the campaign to defeat the measure. www.initiative1639.org That dollar amount pales in comparison to the $4.3 million already raised and spent by anti-gunners to put this initiative on the November ballot.
Another group, SaveOurSecurity.org, has raised slightly more than $24,000, and has produced a video advertisement featuring a local activist who was a crime victim. Here’s the video message:
There are now more than 598,000 active concealed pistol licenses in the state, and grassroots activists are scrambling to energize all of them to beat the measure on election night.
At the recent Gun Rights Policy Conference in Chicago, the national implications of this initiative campaign were discussed with gun owners from as far away as Florida. The consensus is that Washington is being used as a test tube by the gun prohibition lobby to see what might work in their multi-million dollar effort to erode Second Amendment rights.
The analogy they discussed is simple: Right now, the “barbarians” are at the far edge of the realm, represented by the Pacific Northwest. It would be much better for gun owners across the country to support the fight to contain and stop them north of the Columbia River, rather than wait until they bring their gun control campaign to your state.
The Washington Policy Center, a conservative think tank, has issued a detailed analysis of I-1639, which pulls no punches about what this measure seeks to accomplish. Here is a link: (https://www.washingtonpolicy.org/library/doclib/Guppy-Citizens-Guide-to-Initiative-1639-to-enact-new-restrictions-on-firearms-ownership-in-Washington-state.pdf )
Citizens’ Guide to Initiative 1639, to enact new restrictions on firearms ownership in Washington state by AmmoLand Shooting Sports News on Scribd
Gun owners from other states can find out more about the I-1639 opposition here (www.initiative1639.org ) or here (www.saveoursecurity.net ).
About Dave Workman
Dave Workman is senior editor at TheGunMag.com and Liberty Park Press, author of multiple books and formerly an NRA-certified firearms instructor.
Unfortunately for WA, Seattle pretty much determines who and what is voted in. Seattle is full of transplant liberals straight from the looney state of California. They clog our roads, drive our home prices through the roof, and have turned our state blue. So you can scream “vote em out” as loud as you want, but when you are clearly out numbered, it’s pretty much predetermined. I’ll be totally surprised if this doesn’t pass actually.
What would you expect from a state that gets over 250 days of rain, all wet, watered down, and talk about slush, they are just going with the flow!!!!!!!!!!!! They still have no dam construction plans to stop it!!!!!!!!!!
Perspective is awesome, is it not? Water is LIFE. I see 250 days of annual rain fall as a blessing. It provides lush, green, hunting and fishing opportunities where much wildlife thrives, Plus it makes for excellent farmland in the Skagit and Snohomish River Valleys, very rich in nutrients and it feeds our watershed. The Salmon love it, as the do the Bald Eagles and Bears. I guess you have to live here to appreciate it.
Only the hunting will be severely limited if gun owners have to take safety classes that do not exist as of the passing of this law and must give access to their medical info?! Invasion of their rights in so many directions and it will solve nothing as most mass killings are not done by people under the age of 21 as the public has been misled to believe. Nor does the public understand that this law inhibits the use of firearms owned by many to include but not limited to: Winchester Model 100 and Browning BAR, and also every… Read more »
Author: Mr. Walkker Comment: Last year a group of Citizens and Veterans with Big Boy Pants on, they went to Olympia to try to do something about it. They had AR10’s and AR15’s, accordingly equipped. They were meet with an Army of Washing State Patrol Officers. It became very tense. No one was shot. Cooler heads prevailed. It was ugly. Very Ugly. But what we saw was that knowledgeable, smart, loyal, law abiding Patriots, on both sides, both sides stood down. They will always tray to utilize the current rule of law set before them, prior to freaking out and… Read more »
I figured you for a patriotic old fart! And it’s not showing up on here yet but I seen your response to the 250 days of rainfall in the lushness of the forest in the hunting in the Snohomish and Skagit areas being green and flush. I am disabled as well and I’m a veteran US Marine doesn’t make a bit of difference when it comes to our nation being overrun by tyrants. WE, you and I do in fact have to muster all we can to get done what we can where we can as often as we can… Read more »
Author: Gregory Romeu
Comment:
Oh, WAHHHH! @Grig, put you together a little Tupperware party like I’ve explained in another posts and get you some of your local b****** together to put on your big-boy pants and review your state constitution and the power within that you the citizen has to remove these tyrants from office and then take over and run your damn State like a big boy!
Really? What a bunch’a dribble Greg.
Last year a group of Citizens and Veterans with Big Boy Pants on, they went to Olympia to try to do something about it. They had AR10’s and AR15’s, accordingly equipped. They were meet with an Army of Washing State Patrol Officers. It became very tense. No one was shot. Cooler heads prevailed. It was ugly. Very Ugly. But what we saw was that knowledgeable, smart, loyal, law abiding Patriots, on both sides, both sides stood down. They will always tray to utilize the current rule of law set before them, prior to freaking out and burning the house down.… Read more »
@Grig, it’s not a bunch of drivel it is your CIVIC RESPONSIBILITY and DUTY to maintain your government and your government officials! Not to be let around by the nose by a bunch of left-wing liberal tyrants! The condition and Welfare of your state in regards to freedom and liberty reflects on the complacency of the citizens that are sitting on their ass looking for excuses rather than stepping up to the plate and maintaining their government! So you can say dribble all you want but it’s YOUR States that is having the problems and EVERYTHING points to the complacency… Read more »
You people in Wa. Allow this SCUM to run and ruin your way of living and most importantly your freedoms the 2nd. Amendment. Look at Bloomberg this pos is leaning toward running for P.O.T.U.S.. Imagine the sh*t storm that would be created then. The only way to stop toilet SCUM is the clean out and flush out. How do we do this VOTE REPUBLICAN IN NOVEMBER 2018 AND TRUMP2020. GOTTA VOTE.
The problem lies in that the people of Seattle are voting. That’s exactly why this initiative passed. Seattle is just such a shithole city that it’s impossible to get any good legislation through and even harder to stop any bad legislation. And I say that as a local! I love this state but I kind of hate the people who live in it. And for the record I did vote, and it didn’t make a difference, per the norm.
They got outvoted by all the dykes and fairies moving into that state. Haven’t you read about the Left dumping tons of immigrants into small towns to start changing the districts? Or Soros money in local district attorney races?
This is much bigger than a few good old boys going hunting and forgetting to vote.
This is happening in every state, some are just more successful than others. You can not usher in Socialism if people have military type guns.
This is a major problem, Big Money, use the back door, and make sure that nobody is paying attention, and make sure all votes on this comes late at night!!!!!! Pa has been doing this for awhile, with their Demo-Rats working overtime, their latest is conviction of Domestic Violence turn in all firearms in 24 hours, but it is good, problem being are they going to escort you from the court room to home to get them???? Don’t worry Big Bad Wolf has a plan he is a big time Demo-Rat just like Casey!!!!!!!!!
This is the same outline for the Handgun Ownership law that passed in year 2014, here in Washington State. When you buy a Handgun here, you give up all rights to privacy…ALL of them. Medical rights and H.I.P.P.A. is all but dead in Washington State. There is a 3 page form filled out, waiving all rights, a copy goes to local LEO or Sheriff (Registration Scheme), a copy goes to the State Department of Licensing, (Licensing Scheme) and The FFL Dealer retains the3rd copy. Here is the major Fallacy with the Handgun Law passed in 2014. The idiots in the… Read more »
Wow, I live in WA and did not know about that 2014 Handgun Law. Scary. And yet nothing this communist state does surprises me anymore. Wish I never moved here.
@Mr Walkker, I wouldn’t be too quick to say, “The idiots in the Washington State Legislator”, because it does appear to be that they’ve got you pissing in your pants? Why don’t you join, (as I suggested to, Michael below) and put you together a little Tupperware party of b****** and pull out your state constitution and review the power that you as a citizen have to remove these jackass thugs from office and take over your damn State and WHEN YOU DO, WORK TO MAINTAIN IT AS PER THE CONSTITUTIONS rather than SPECIAL INTERESTS??? Damn PEOPLE? Did ANYBODY,PAY attention… Read more »
Straight out of Stalins’ playbook; if we can’t get you for being a criminal, we can lock you up for being insane. What’s insane…anything the State says it is. Clinton tried to have “resistance to authority” added to the DSM an a mental health pathology. It didn’t work. if the “Progressives” get control of Congress in the next election they will try again.
@Mike? Are we tI understand this to mean that you’re going to step up to become an elected Republican Party Precinct Chairman in your area and also be a Poll Watcher come the Mid-Term Election?
This must serve as awake up call for both the NRA and the NRA-ILA. This gun grab has not developed in a bubble nor was this scheme concocted overnight. These Anti-2nd Millionaire Goons are very well organized. I tried to warn both the NRA and NRA-ILA, well over 4 months ago, back in May of 2018. I tried to tell them all of what was headed our way here in Washington State. I sent numerous letters and emails. I heard nothing back until two weeks ago. NRA is late to the party again. Meanwhile, back in Puget Sound, Anti-Gun TV… Read more »
@Mr. Walkker? YOU are ALLOWING those, “Liberal Loonies” to TAKE OVER YOUR FREEDOM AND LIBERTY and all the history books are going to say is, “Mr. Walkker HAD the opportunity to apply his power granted him through the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state that he lived in to remove those, “Liberal Loonies” from office, but he just whined like Bitch and didn’t do anything about it except sit on his complacent ass with the rest of the sheeple of his State and try to wait and , “vote them out of office”! Wait and… Read more »
The left is like a cancer. As sickening as it is, that cancer is spreading to the sheeple. We are the one’s who vote after all. Each generation gets dumb’d down. One never misses what one never had. This is just one more step.
No, Ron, the REAL problem is most folks don’t even bother to REGISTER to vote, much less cast a ballot. ‘We have met the enemy and he is us’ – Pogo.
Oh, WAHHHH! @Grig, put you together a little Tupperware party like I’ve explained in another posts and get you some of your local b****** together to put on your big-boy pants and review your state constitution and the power within that you the citizen has to remove these tyrants from office and then take over and run your damn State like a big boy!
Initiative 1639 is a 30-page, multi-faceted measure But there is much more to this initiative, which is being pushed by the Alliance for Gun Responsibility, a Seattle-based organization largely funded by a small group of wealthy elitists, including Seattle Seahawks owner Paul Allen, venture capitalist Nick Hanauer and Steve Ballmer. It is also supported by anti-gun billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund. If passed, the initiative 1639 would define every common rifle, THAT USES 100 YEAR OLD TECHNOLOGY as a “SEMI-AUTOMATIC ASSAULT RIFLE” (regardless of how small the magazine is, regardless if the gun can shoot more… Read more »
That is NOT three page form, it is three copies of the same one page form, distributed as you describe. I do not recall anything about waiving rights to privacy or granting access to medical records etc.. and I have had a nasty habit for decades now of actually READING the fine print on anything I sign. I could have missed that, though… that aside, you ARE correct, that does, on its face, constitute a handgun registry. But let’s get real here; The FFL don’t care, he keeps one copy, but the sale is already written in his Record of… Read more »
@ E. Brian Hoover, “reardless if the gun can shoot more than one bullet at a time” physically impossible unless maybe you’re some kind of a psychotic left-wing-nut like Frankenstein down in California. @Tionoco, you forgot to mention that the batfe and the Obama Administration couldn’t track any of their guns with the Fast and Furious scandal until one of those guns ended up laying next to the dead body of fellow US Marine and US Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. Gentleman lest I remind you that: “When citizens fear the government there is tyranny. When a government fears the… Read more »
WHAT is your purpose for quoting half of Dave’s article and making no comment? Wasting space here….