Washington State Ballot Initiatives

September 6, 2013

Washingtonians, are you aware of the ballot initiatives (still seeking signatures) in our state surrounding gun rights and gun control? There are two, one on each side.

According to this first article, "...the Washington Alliance for Gun Responsibility (WAGR) filed its citizen initiative to the State Legislature, pushing for gun control..." Dissatisfied with the fact that gun control legislative proposals didn't make it out of committee during this year's session, advocates are trying to go straight to voters to push their 2nd Amendment rights-limiting agenda.

It also says:

"...there are now 433,223 active CPLs. On May 13, the last time TGM checked with the agency, there were 426,180 CPLs in circulation. That’s a difference of 7,043 carry licenses in just over a month."

"Washington has seen a steady climb in the number of CPLs for more than two years. Last year ended with 392,784 active licenses. That’s more than 40,400 CPLs issued in the Evergreen State since the first of the year, which is more than the total number of new carry licenses or permits issued annually in some states.

For Washington, that averages to about 8,000 licenses issued per month since the start of 2013, which is a considerable bump in volume from last year’s average at this time of about 2,500 to 3,000 CPLs."

Well at least that's good news.

http://bearingarms.com/wa-concealed-carry-numbers-soar-with-gun-control-initiative-filing-2/

This second article mentions there is also a pro-gun rights initiative although it doesn't go into the details. It does provide a pretty good explanation of some of the initiatives' background, although it's admittedly written from a biased point of view.

http://www.examiner.com/article/king-county-executive-takes-sides

I don't know where they're collecting signatures to get them on the ballot. I know that if i come across any I'll gladly sign in favor of Initiative 591 in favor of gun rights. If I'm approached by the so-called "gun responsibility" one I'l gladly take their forms so I can trash them. (The article says the forms cannot be downloaded and had to be printed - so a form in the trash is one less they have to work with.)

If these make it to the ballot next year, remember to vote YES on Initiative 591; and to vote NO for the so-called 'gun responsibility' one.

More to come on the 'gun control playbook' mentioned in the article. But as a rule of thumb, you can pretty accurately judge that any groups, proposals or initiatives with phrases like "gun responsibility," "gun sense," "common sense," "reform," "gun violence," etc. in their titles are about anything BUT common sense and should be rejected out of hand. Some of these people may have good intentions but as a class they have no idea what they're talking about and refuse to engage in real debate about the issues, statistics or gaping holes in their so-called arguments. They prefer to stick to emotional appeals, not facts, because the facts don't support them.

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Related blogs:
http://us2ndamendment.blogspot.com/2013/09/washington-state-ballot-initiatives.html
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