U.S.A. –-(Ammoland.com)- Washington State gun owners who “sold back” their bump stocks for $150 apiece to the State Patrol won’t have their names and addresses released after all, thanks to a bipartisan Senate bill that passed overwhelmingly in the final hours of the legislative session. As reported first by AmmoLand News our coverage thwarted an attempt to expose Washington State gun owners names by someone who filed a Public Records Act request under an apparent fake name.
Lawmakers allocated $150,000 for the buyback effort, and bump stock owners obviously rushed to get the money, since the devices had been made illegal by earlier legislation. But when a PRA request filed by someone identifying himself as “Yati Arguna” became public knowledge, social media lit up with some activists ridiculing buyback participants because they had unwittingly exposed themselves to what amounted to a legal invasion of privacy.
The Arguna request came via email to the State Patrol, and it was overly candid, according to one WSP source.
“This is a public records request,” the Arguna note stated. “I seek to inspect any and all completed WSP bump stock buy back (sic) forms. I seek to obtain the names and addresses where checks will be mailed for the bump stock buy back (sic) program. My intent is to create a searchable database and map of Washington state to overlay the locations. The public has a right to know that these dangerous devices may have been in neighborhoods that the (sic) live in and who has previously owned such devices.”
Reaction to the PRA request was swift and angry. Gun owners felt they had been betrayed; after all, Washington law protects the identities of concealed pistol license holders. Lawmakers saw they had a public relations disaster on their hands.
After being notifyed by AmmoLand News’ writer John Crump, Gun Owners of America quickly filed lawsuit to prevent disclosure of the names of those gun owners who had participated in the program. But rights activists and enough lawmakers showed a lack of confidence in how an Evergreen State liberal court might rule, so the Legislature went to work.
Senate Bill 6025 was introduced April 27, 2019, just a couple of days prior to adjournment. A companion bill in the House had been introduced a few days earlier, also with bipartisan backing, but it didn’t move. The Senate version did, and it was fast, with a single amendment adopted that had a retroactive element so the Arguna request would be nullified.
It passed the Senate 39-7, with the “nay” votes all coming from Democrats. The bill moved across the Capitol building to the House, where it passed 97-1, again with a Democrat casting the single negative vote.
What remains is for Gov. Jay Inslee, currently running for president on a climate change platform (with room for higher taxes and gun control), to sign the legislation. He brings up the rear in a field of 20 declared candidates, with the news media focusing primarily on Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke, Pete Buttegieg and, to a lesser degree, Kamala Harris and Cory Booker.
The Legislature also didn’t pass a magazine limit, or other onerous legislation that would have instituted the stiffest training requirement in the country for a concealed pistol license, but that’s not a signal those proposals are dead. The Seattle-based Alliance for Gun Responsibility, a billionaire-backed organization whose last initiative campaign was largely funded by wealthy elitists in about a dozen zip codes, could throw all of those things into another initiative.
But the Legislature’s quick action on bump stock privacy demonstrates that lawmakers still believe gun owners have some rights, including privacy. It’s a positive signal.
About Dave Workman
Dave Workman is a senior editor at TheGunMag.com and Liberty Park Press, author of multiple books on the Right to Keep & Bear Arms and formerly an NRA-certified firearms instructor.
Any legal gun owner who didn’t think twice about having a check MAILED to their home after turning in their bumpstock must not understand what has happened here in Washington. This state has been taken over by libs and progressive, gun hating, power hungry, fear mongers. When I read that they weren’t going to pay on the spot but would mail it to your home, I had a feeling that it would leave a door open to something like this. Their information is still there, and if anyone thinks that that information is going to be locked away forever, they’re… Read more »
Notice who “steps up to the plate” here. The Gun Owners of America…NOT the NRA.
I hope you’re paying attention, sports fans…
The Marxists that populate the state legislatures of the blue states (my own included) and in general seem to have a propensity for lists. OK….I urge everyone to do as I do and keep a “Traitors List”. Oath breaking legislators, governors, judges, as well as media personnel and all other anti-American ne’er do wells in general.
Keep it up to date, and when the time comes, you’ll know where to find them so you can guide them while bound to the gallows.
The Spokesman Review Paper in Spokane Washington was the third to ask for the information on the bumpstock program. Their response on why, was.
“We do not have a purpose in mind or a story planned. We routinely ask for public records as a matter of transparency. As you know, this request was denied.
Thank you for asking.”
Dave Workman, thanks for dogging this for us. It happened so fast I never heard about it till it was a done deal.. except for Idiotslee’s scribble.
It might be useful information if you were to list all the Dem “lawmakers” who voted against it. For future reference and all.
I know I could go look it up, but then I can’t publish it here like you can.
I appreciate your recent proactive work in keeping on top of Washington’s “issues” like this.
Congratulations to all the fools in Washington who turned in their bump stocks. You are now on a list of potential “assault weapon” owners. There was no record of who owned bump stocks, but now if you complied with a bad law, you are on a list; good job. Anyone who obeys every law without question simply because “it is the law” deserves whatever happens to them. This is supposed to be, or was, America where freedom lived and thrived, but thanks to mindless sheep who blindly obey any and all laws, it has become something other than than the… Read more »
Well said. One thing I blame our forefathers for getting wrong is the way laws are created and implemented in this country. There should have been three additional provisions in the Constitution: 1) All laws that are created must first go through the Supreme Court to establish constitutionality before being implemented. 2) Supreme Court justices need to have their voting background reviewed every 4 years (at the end or beginning of each presidential term) to establish whether they consistently voting in line with the Constitution. Those justices who have a record of voting against the majority decision 25% or more… Read more »
Pretty good, two out of three. The second two have great merit. Howeve,r to install SCOTUS as the final arbiter of what laws can pass is to in effect make them the final step in lawmaking, a task WHOLLY and EXCLUSIVELY reserved to the legislature. When they pass bad laws, as they do and will, and they come up before SCOTUS, methinks that “august body” when they “find” something to be unconstitutional should have some power of sanction against the drafters of that out-of-order law. Perhaps hold that such a finding is grounds to undertake impeachment, or some penalty for… Read more »
Tionico, you are so very WRONG. The Supreme Court had ONE and ONLY ONE job, insure every law passed is in 100% harmony with the Constitution. After all, NO LAW may stand that is against the Constitution. The SCOTUS, wanting MORE POWER and COWARDLY Americans refusing to do their Constitutional Duty, have become the final arbiter in all law matters. A power they are NOT Constitutionally due. Thomas Jefferson said the SCOTUS was the LEAST important court. FACTS and CONSTITUTIONAL LAW are truth. You go on to snivel about “But as long as the nothing that happens when they’re out… Read more »
Judges only issue opinions, The Constitution is clear, We dont need it interpreted, We know what it says..The second amendment gave us the Right to resist..
I am sure the Venezuelan people who dutifully turned in their guns in 2012 when Hugo Chavez enacted his gun control measures wish they would have kept them. Now, they are fighting the ruthless, murderous Venezuelan “military” with rocks.
“But the Legislature’s quick action on bump stock privacy demonstrates that lawmakers still believe gun owners have some rights, including privacy. It’s a positive signal.” …… I respectfully disagree. I think rather it is pragmatism on the part of the anti gunners. They know that if the people who turned in their bump stocks are dox’ed their will be no further compliance with any anti gun confiscations in the future.
This was NOT a “confiscation”, it was a voluntary exchange of one item (the inert and harmless hunk of plastic) for another (a cheque for a buckanahaff. If I know the gun owners of Washington half as well as I think I do, no way more than a single-digit percentage of the “dread devices” were surrendered on any basis. Owners of those tools faced four options: surrender to FBI/BATF, no record, no conpensation, no legal risk now or later cut it up no record, no compensation, no legal risk now or later hide it. No loss, no compensation, HUGE legal… Read more »
Sorry but it is a form of confiscation if you are criminalized for not complying. Apply what you just said to a national ban on AR’s and tell me it would not be confiscation. Ex Post Facto, confiscation… I do know Washington gun owners having once lived and worked there, specifically with them. I am sure you are correct in that the number of stocks turned in was very small. You are not correct if you are assuming that the legislature was moving rapidly to benignly address constituents concerns. They were in full CYA mode, not from a shit storm… Read more »
Nra begged for trump to bann bumpstocks creating a mess.the PEOPLE had to fix the problem. THANK YOU NRA AND YOUR RED FLAG IDEAS AND BUMPSTOCK BANN
This is a good reason to not allow gun registration and other “gun safety” laws.
Shame on every gun owner who votes Democrat.
those without morality can not be shamed
Don’t blame the NRA ,for the mess. Put the blame where it belongs, Those who VOTED there people into office and more so , the people who DIDN’T VOTE.
As well as those that fail to REMOVE FROM OFFICE, ANY and ALL corrupt officials that are in violation of their Oaths of Office, beginning with, “defend and protect the Constitution” and onward! CLUE: You DO NOT wait to, “Vote them out of office” if they commit a criminal act, YOU INDICT and PROSECUTE THEM through your Grand Jury!
Article VI! Amen!
This ban is not the result of people any of us voted into office or not. And that is part of the root issue with this bumpstock ban. It were unelected unaccountable bureaucrats made this happen. They HAVE no lawmaking powers, but did anyway. Nor are FBI, CIA, or any other of the FedGov agents on scene after the Las Vegas massacre voted into office. Yet it was THEY who declared bumpstocks “were used”, yet when BATF wanted to examine the weapons, spent chsll casings, recovered projectiles, they were denied. As of now, there is NOT ONE SHRED OF PROOF… Read more »
You can’t use honest and Politician in the same sentence.
Shame on every gun owner who votes Democrat.
It is now becoming an obvious indicator Communists and Gov.control all tyrants do intend someday to take our rights and means of defense. These type scum should be watched and remembered. The world has changed before due to exact actions we see today by the insane leftist filth.. 75 years ago they ended up causing 60 miio. Deaths by their power grabs and tyranny.
Where was the NRA?? Oh, that’s right, they’re going door to door begging for donations. But rest assured, they will as usual claim GOA’s victories as their own.
@wjd I’m a GOA member and that beg me for money at least once a day.
The GOA begs you for money every day?
And all they do with those donations is pay excessive salaries (million plus) to the NRA administration. Olie North just gave up being the President, likely because of the outrage over his salary and the backdoor dealings with the advertising firm.
WA Lawmakers (aka Law-Breakers) in 2018-2018, launched a major assault against numerous Constitutional rights in Washington State. Below is a shopping list of which they took out, and presented during the past Legislative session. The list is long. Some made it past committees, some did not. Some passed through and were signed by the Goobernator Jay ‘Carbon-Block-Head ” Inslee. You know the Guy, he is running for POTUS. House Bills: HB1010,HB1068, HB1225, HB1465, HB1739, and HB1786. Senate Bills: SB5027,SB5061, SB5062, SB5143, SB5174, SB5181, and SB5434. All of these on top of the draconian bill passes in 2018, stripping 18-21 year… Read more »
While I agree the information should not have been available for release ex post facto legislation (aka retroactive laws) are prohibited. This should have been treated no differently tha the anonymous bun “buy back” programs.
It doesn’t matter! 1) The idiots who turned in their bumpstocks voluntarily gave up their information, and 2) there is NOTHING stopping the government from later rescinding the protection of that information, or just violating it and “leaking” the information. It’s government, not like they are actually honest!