The state of Washington used to have pretty decent gun laws, but that’s changed over the past decade as voters and lawmakers have enacted bans on so-called assault weapons and large capacity magazines, implemented “universal” background checks and “red flag” laws, and expanded the list of “gun-free zones” where lawful carry is criminalized.
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Though lawmakers boasted about the positive effects these laws would have on public safety, the truth is that violent crime has increased over the past few years. Victim’s advocate Tiffany Attrill says murder rates have jumped 80% since 2019, alongside a 19.6% increase in violent crime overall.
It’s blindingly obvious that violent criminals from Seattle to Puyallup aren’t paying attention to these possessory offenses, but the gun control group Washington Alliance for Gun Responsibility is hoping to persuade Democrats in Olympia to enact more than a half-dozen new anti-2A statutes in the coming year.
The group lists seven priorities including a requirement for permits to purchase firearms, a tax on firearm and ammunition sales, and a restriction on “bulk sales.”
“Limiting the number of firearms and ammunition an individual can purchase at a given time is a straightforward approach to prevent gun trafficking,” said AGR in a Dec. 9 policy agenda memo.
Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms quickly reacted to the purchase permit and special tax items in comments posted by Dave Workman with Liberty Park Press and TheGunMag.
“No other enumerated constitutional right requires a permit from the government to be exercised,” Gottlieb told TGM. “Likewise, the exercise of other constitutional rights cannot be subjected to a punitive tax.”
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No other constitituonally-protected right is rationed either. In fact California’s “one-in-30” gun rationing law is currently on hold after a U.S. District Court judge ruled earlier this year that it violates the Second Amendment, but that’s not stopping the anti-gunners in Washington from trying to foist the same infringement on gun owners in the state.
Beyond the permit-to-purchase, gun rationing, and increased taxes on firearms and ammunition, the gun controllers also want to see the state impose limits on the purchase of ammunition, allow localities to establish their own “gun-free zones”, create new gun storage mandates, and subject firearm retailers to unnamed “standards of care” or risk losing their license.
Police in Seattle say they’re seeing more stolen guns used in crime, but that doesn’t mean that subjecting lawful gun owners to criminal penalties if their firearms are stolen is the answer. How about going after the thieves and those selling purloined guns on the black market instead? At the very least, the state should be cracking down on violent offenders, but while the Democratic majority in the statehouse is keen on targeting legal gun owners they’ve allowed for the creation of a catch-and-release system in the courts.
A four-time convicted felon has been arrested again, accused of using a stolen gun to commit at least nine shootings throughout Seattle.
Officers with the Seattle Police Department said they connected 26-year-old Khalif Myles to nine shootings within the city of Seattle since only October 6, 2024.
According to court documents, Myles was observed by detectives to have a cross-body bag that he regularly wears.
When police searched the his residence, prosecutors said they found two firearms within that specific body bag. When tracing both those firearms, detectives said they determined that the gun had been used in at least nine shootings in the last month-and-a-half.
Prosecutors wrote that the victims of those shootings each appeared to be targeted at random.
As a result of public safety worries, prosecutors successfully argued that Myles should be held at the King County jail on $1,000,000 bail.
A check of court records shows Myles has been convicted of four felonies dating back to 2015. Two of those cases involved assaults, while the other two involved robbery.
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Four felonies in less than ten years, but Myles was treated with kid gloves by the judicial system… at least until his most recent arrest.
In an unscientific online survey attached to that KOMO report cited above, 81% of respondents said “repeat offenders” is the most critical public safety issue Washington State faces. Just 4% cited gun control as the most important issue, behind the state’s drug trade at 11%, and tied with the 4% who say stolen cars used in crimes should be the top priority of lawmakers.
While that survey just reflects the views of those KOMO viewers who visited the news station’s website, the results are still worth a look by legislators. Violent crime is a genuine concern for many Washington residents, but after a decade of increased gun controls and increased violent crime rates, there’s good reason to believe that many voters are starting to sour on the anti-2A ideology embraced by the Democratic majority in Olympia… and many criminals have been emboldened by it.
