Last week, I passed along the ballot titles for our opposing firearm initives. I also suggested that you read the full text of each. Again, the titles below are all you will see on your ballot.
Certified ballot title for Initiative 591:
“This measure would prohibit government agencies from confiscating guns or other firearms from citizens without due process, or from requiring background checks on firearm recipients unless a uniform national standard is required.
“Should this measure be enacted into law? Yes [ ] No [ ]”
Certified ballot title for Initiative 594:
“This measure would apply currently used criminal and public safety background checks by licensed dealers to all firearm sales and transfers, including gun show and online sales, with specific exceptions.
“Should this measure be enacted into law? Yes [ ] No [ ]”
591 covers less than a page and its ballot title accurately reflects its text and intention. 594, on the other hand, covers 18 pages and its ballot title is misleading at best and dishonest at worst.
You will note that some very wealthy and influential people are supporting 594. You will also hear that a few high-profile law enforcement officials think it is a good idea. I would encourage you to consider that the membership of The Washington Council of Police & Sheriffs voted, on June 27, to support Inititative 591 and oppose Initiative 594. The Council (www.wacops.org/) is fifty years old, and has some 4,300 members.
Phil Shave is Executive Director of the Washington Arms Collectors (washingtonarmscollectors.org). The group organized in 1952 and today has more than 17,000 active members. Phil put together a several-page fact sheet addressing the ways in which 594 will impact our lives, should it pass. I have read the full text of the initiative, and I would not argue with any of his points. Almost all of his concerns fall within the catch-all phrase at the end of the ballot title, above, “…with specific exceptions.” Let me pass along a mere handful of Phil’s concerns. Find the text of 594 online and read it for yourself.
Background checks would be required for all sales or transfers. “Transfer” includes gifts and loans to another person—even a loan lasting less than two minutes. This goes far beyond transactions involving a sale for money or a trade for goods.
Gifts are only exempted if they are to immediate family members—my son-in-law is not an immediate family member.
There is significant paperwork involved with any transfer. This includes loan of a rifle or shotgun to a buddy or non-immediate family member. Many of the transactions must go through a Federal Firearms Licensee, and there will be new costs whether you sell a firearm or give it to someone outside your immediate family. If you screw up the transfer paperwork more than once, your violations will become class C felonies, which result in loss of your civil rights (such as voting and possessing firearms).
If you and your son or daughter go to a trap range to shoot, and you both use the same shotgun, you are okay unless the kid is over 18. In that case, you will both do something illegal. The same is true if one of your buddies comes along and shoots the gun.
Most adult handgun or firearms safety training classes would be breaking the law simply because of the passing of a training firearm from person to person.
If you hand off a firearm to a buddy to drop off for repair or even stock refinishing, you will both have committed a crime.
Even if your under-eighteen kids have completed their hunter safety training and have years of hunting experience with your firearms, they must be under your direct supervision while hunting. If not, you have each committed a crime.
Word is that 594 is not a firearms registration law. Question: Where does all that paperwork go?
And the list goes on. And on. And on…
Oh, by the way, did I mention that, in the 18 pages of text for 594, at least three pages have to do with taxes related in one way or another to the firearms transfers and background checks?
And in the midst of this mind-boggling reading, I kept asking myself a paraphrase of one of The Old Man’s questions: “What is the real problem to be solved here, and how in hell is this 18 page mess going to solve it?”
Next week, a look at your options, if you think you want to protect yourself and your family from the problems 594 will bring, if passed.
Ballot Inititiative 594 is a Trojan Horse. It will significantly alter the way you, your family and your friends use and enjoy your firearms. It will also, in my view, seriously impact your ability to keep and bear arms. Contact every person you know—especially on the West Side—and ask them to read the whole text. Then ask if that is the future they truly would like to see. If not, they must vote against 594 and in favor of 591.
