With the support of a Seattle-based, billionaire-backed gun prohibition lobbying group, Washington’s Democrat King County Executive Dow Constantine has announced the launch of a “Regional Office of Gun Violence Prevention,” and has earmarked $13.5 million to set it up.
Constantine, who has been endorsed by a gun control group in the past for election, made the announcement during a press event Oct. 17. According to KCPQ, the local Fox News affiliate, Sheriff Patti Cole-Tindall—a Constantine appointee—“highlighted alarming gun violence statistics throughout the region.”
“Data collected by King County shows the numbers are up across the board. Shot fired incidents increased 17%. The number of shooting victims jumped 55%. Most shockingly, the number of fatal shooting victims has skyrocketed, up 76%,” KCPQ reported.
Ammoland News has covered the steady increase of gun-related violence in Washington State, especially in King County and Seattle, in past reports. While the numbers are not staggering compared to the homicide statistics from places such as Chicago or Baltimore, for the Pacific Northwest they are pretty grim.
Since 2014, when the well-funded Alliance for Gun Responsibility began bankrolling gun control initiatives, the number of homicides statewide has risen from 172 in 2014, according to the FBI Uniform Crime Report, to 394, according to the 2022 Crime in Washington report from the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs (WASPC).
In just Seattle, the number of murders since 2015, the first full year in which provisions of a 2014-adopted “universal background check” initiative were in effect, has doubled, from 26 to 52 last year, and the city’s body count for this year has already exceeded last year’s by at least a dozen. The death toll now stands at 64, with more than two months remaining in the year.
Reader reaction to the Constantine announcement has been overwhelmingly skeptical to negative at the Seattle Times website story. According to the Times, this new effort is designed “to stanch recent increases in shootings and killings, especially in South King County.” But the current homicide data is a strong indication Constantine’s project will do no such thing. The only thing all of the previous gun control efforts have accomplished is to make it harder for law-abiding citizens of Washington State to exercise their rights.
Rising crime has resulted in a sharp increase in the number of concealed pistol licenses statewide and in King County, which encompasses Seattle. The most recent data from the state Department of Licensing shows the county has 111,332 of the state’s total 696,540 active CPLs. Roughly 22 percent of those licenses are held by women.
Constantine’s plan follows the same general course as a national plan announced by the Biden White House about three weeks ago. Joe Biden announced the first-ever White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, putting Vice President Kamala Harris in charge.
In a remark quoted by several news agencies, Constantine asserted, “The maddening truth of all this of course is we’re not fighting an inevitable disaster, but a preventable disaster.”
The concern is that this will become just one more taxpayer-funded bureaucracy that becomes another voice supporting whatever gun control proposals come up during the 2024 legislative session.
According to Westside Seattle.com, “King County’s efforts have been recognized by the White House for outstanding collaboration, multisector engagement, and comprehensive coordination throughout the community. The new Office will work closely with other National Offices of Violence Prevention and the White House’s newly formed Office of Gun Violence Prevention to leverage additional federal resources to combat gun violence.”
That may seem impressive to some people, but others wonder what this office will actually accomplish. Recent history suggests the number of murders will continue to climb, as well as the number of non-fatal shootings and even shots-fired reports. And law-abiding gun owners will wind up being penalized even more.
KING5 News, the local NBC affiliate in Seattle, quoted a Constantine press release which stated, “Whether it’s a headline from around the country, or right here where we live, work and play, every act of gun violence is something we can stop from happening, but only if we work together. Our new office will connect us with the federal resources of the White House, serve as a hub for the region, and expand our local initiatives to ensure every community in King County can be safe from gun violence.”
At the end of the day, however, such statements amount to lots of words which may not translate into any material result.
One comment from more than 140 Times reader reactions seems to sum up the prevailing sentiment: “NOTHING in this pr ploy by Constantine will have any real positive effect. It will put more people on the government payroll, which translates into more D voters, the entire goal.”
RELATED:
- Exclusive: Seattle Illustrates National Failure of Gun Control Mentality
- Seattle Gun, Ammo Tax Fails Again: Revenue Falls, Body Count Rises
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.
WA wiII snap off and sIide into the Pacific with KaIifornia.
Not just a voice supporting gun control, but a megaphone.
Human violence prevention would be a more just cause , but logic never enters a liberals mind .
Only since the influx of high tech economies has Pugetopolis gone off the rails. The COWARDICE of the elected officials and their puppets in the sheriff’s department and especially the Seattle Police Department is causing all of this. Lily white and feeling uber-guilty about it Pugetopolis did not have a gang problem until 2000, (back then Seattle racial demographics were 88% White with the rest being Asian, Blacks and various Natives. Like with all dumbassed liberals, starting with the teachers, government school administrators and liberal government officials they were jealous of all the dystopia manifested with the multiculturalism phenomena happening… Read more »
The 23,900 gun laws thus far have had no impact on crime other than to encourage it, as these laws merely make gun ownership and carrying weapons more difficult if not unlawful in numerous areas. Which, of course, only applies to “law abiding” citizens, for criminals by their nature ignore and break the law. Now, citizens are relegated to victim status, and go about unarmed, easy targets, and thus murders and shootings increase. The only way to decrease crime is for criminals to fear their potential victims, because those people are armed and ready to defend themselves. That, of course,… Read more »
Those allowing such things to occur. Regardless of whether they are behind the ‘iron curtain’ are no better off than the Jews were in Nazi Germany. Never believing it will get ‘That Bad’ as incremental steps were made to make it that bad. All without a struggle or fight. First they came for my RightsAnd I did not ActBecause what can 1 person doThen they came for the Firearms buildersAnd I did not ActBecause I was not a BuilderThen they came for the sellersAnd I did not ActBecause I do not sellThen they came for the selected guns/ownersAnd I did… Read more »