Yesterday’s big-money fund raising luncheon in Seattle to fatten the campaign war chest for Initiative 1491, the new gun control measure pushed by the same people who bankrolled Initiative 594 two years ago, raised a reported $750,000, according to the Seattle P-I.com.
What the gathering didn’t do, and what the measure won’t do, is prevent violent crime by determined people. As this column has previously reported (see link below), I-594 has been a failure as a crime prevention tool, something its elitist backers will never acknowledge. However, recent news reports are taking care of that.
The situation in Seattle is representative of gun control efforts across the country. Lots of flash, not much substance, and a supporting press cadre that continues to misrepresent this as “gun safety.”
I-1491 is the so-called “Extreme Risk Protection Order” measure that allows for the disarmament of someone based on allegations that they are “at high risk of harming themselves or others.” There are genuine concerns among Second Amendment activists that this 20-page initiative (I-594 only spanned 18 pages; the sponsors are getting more prolific) poses problems relating to due process, which is mentioned in both the Fifth and 14th Amendments of the Constitution, the same document that includes the Second Amendment, which gun prohibitionists are vigorously trying to erode if not destroy, say gun rights advocates.
Back in December this column detailed the failures of I-594, the so-called “Universal Background Check” passed in 2014 after a $10.4 million campaign. Since proponents had claimed that more than 80 percent of the voters supported such checks, it shouldn’t have cost more than $10 million to get less than a 60 percent favorable vote from just over 50 percent of the eligible voters who bothered to return a ballot.
Current events belie the effectiveness of I-594, which should tell voters something about this new gun control effort. As this column reported in March, after more than a year on the books, I-594 had reportedly blocked only 50 gun transactions to people who were disqualified from owning a gun, but there had been no arrests or prosecutions as a result. And there was no evidence that any of those 50 people didn’t ultimately get a firearm through some illicit means.
One glance at the Seattle Times online today might easily explain the problem to anyone but the Utopia-minded wealthy elitists who dislike guns and people who own them. One story tells about criminal charges filed against a Burien teen in the slaying of his 17-year-old girlfriend last week. The story doesn’t detail where this teen got the 9mm pistol he used to fire the fatal shot, but it did say he has been charged with second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm.
The story also noted that earlier this year, the same kid had been charged with the same crime for having brought a loaded .45-caliber handgun to Rainier Beach High School. The story didn’t say where that handgun came from, either, but it’s a safe assumption that neither acquisition involved a background check.
Another story tells about police accounts of the fatal shooting of Che Taylor, the armed felon killed in north Seattle back in February. Convicted felons aren’t allowed to possess firearms under existing state and federal law, so it’s safe to presume that he didn’t bother with a background check.
For further edification, check the report on KCPQ about last Friday’s ripoff from a Lynnwood gun shop involving two young African-American males. They made off with a Glock pistol, but left the magazine. Store surveillance cameras got a really good image of at least one of these thieves, and it’s all over the Internet. And just like in the other mentioned cases here, there was obviously no background check involved in this brazen caper.
Contrary to the timeworn argument from gun prohibitionists that the “gun lobby” wants to arm criminals and crazy people, responsible gun owners do not want firearms in the wrong hands. Gun rights advocates don’t want people with suicidal tendencies to get firearms, and that’s one reason why they are fully on board with the one piece of significant legislation to pass in Olympia this year aimed at suicide prevention and intervention.
While a Democrat-controlled House didn’t pass the gun control bill at the heart of I-1491, the Legislature overwhelmingly passed Engrossed Second Substitute House Bill 2793, the “Suicide Awareness and Prevention Education for Safer Homes Act.” Perhaps likely Washington voters will take note of that.
Yesterday, Mark Kelly, who attended the gun control luncheon with his wife, former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, observed that, “More people in Washington die each year from gunshot wounds than in automobile accidents.”
What he apparently didn’t mention, or at least it wasn’t part of the P-I.com report, is that the overwhelming majority of those firearm-related deaths were suicides. Isn’t it interesting, if not ironic, that the group taking a decisive step to reduce these deaths is the firearms community, while the gun prohibition lobby, fueled by big bucks elitism, continues to push gun control efforts that are of questionable value?
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