It came right down to the wire in Olympia on the last day of bill consideration, but a measure to expand background checks in Washington State died yesterday in the state House of Representatives. For now . . .
I’ve been following HB 1588 closely for some time now, because it would have required background checks for nearly all private firearms sales. Compared to many other civilian-disarmament bills floating around out there, this one wasn’t too poisonous. Sponsors tried to make it more palatable by exempting CCW permit holders, and they tried to ease the fears of a backdoor universal gun registry by prohibiting FFL dealers or law enforcement agencies from retaining copies of Form 4473s.
HB 1588 unfortunately survived the Great NW Gun Ban Bill Cull 0f 2013, but its Democratic sponsors (who have a majority in the House) couldn’t even round up enough fellow Democrats to guarantee its passage out of the House of Representatives. The session deadline was only hours away when its sponsors decided not to bring it to a vote. Even if it had somehow passed the House, it would have died a painful death in the GOP-controlled state Senate.
So I’m breathing a short-lived sigh of relief. This bill is dead, but much bigger threats loom on the horizon in the form of Chuck Schumer’s draconian (and almost Orwellian) version of ‘universal background checks.’
Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.
In the long term…..I wonder what other changes are lurking behind the scenes waiting to be unveiled. Surely the gun grabbing is just a preamble to a greater change, one that “they” don’t want the possibility of an armed public rebelling against.
Let s face it, It has got to be something so unpalletable to the average joe that “they” would expect armed oposition.
The main reason, I think, why New York State doesn’t cut off New York City has to do with money – that is, New York City has money and the rest of New York State doesn’t. I’d still favor cutting out New York City – better to be poorer and free than richer and enslaved – but if such a proposal were actually before the state legislature, I think you’d see a lot of folks get cold feet.
This bill was a toothless waste of time anyway. Exempting CPL holders (and WA is good and quick about its shall-issue CPL system) and not requiring any paperwork or record keeping of any sort whether the transaction was private-party or through an FFL or police/sheriff (to run a NICS check) basically voided all of the “good intentions” of the bill in the first place. Good riddance. Now if only our legislators could stop wasting their time on this crap and try to fix real problems — deficits, jobs, attracting companies to the State, etc etc…
Since when are the taxpayers supposed to pay for what is essentially a freely provided private security force? Since New York I guess…
RF, I agree with you completely. I was an LEO from 1981 to 1996, in several different parts of the country, a firearms instructor, and FBI SWAT trained. As a younger man, all the cool gear was…cool. But there were still rules to be followed. The “War on Drugs”, and now the “War on Terror”, along with all the money flowing to departments that need to get more training and education, not full-auto rifles and armored cars, rolled right over those rules.
I now fear my government and all its agents much more than I fear the bad guys.
I told him that I would never set foot in his state again and will spend my money elsewhere.
At some point the American People have to stand up and say enough – or do we wait till we have no rights – this is BS and they no it – they want everyone to be dumb and with out our rights. PEOPLE start sending the message that it’s time to go!!!
What a whole lotta hubblah over nothing….
What they hell does it matter if they’re wearing multicam? It’s probably cheap to buy new in bulk…..
Virtually all police uniforms these days are based off of military style. Shoulder straps, combination covers, smokey hats, gun belts, cargo pants.
For a hundred years the police have used military style ranking structure, terminology etc and large numbers of police officers are former military. In the 1920s police officers were killing gangsters in sieges armed with semi auto rifles and BARs.
These is nothing wrong with swat uniforms modeling military combat uniforms. Or weapons modeling military rifles. He’ll most modern gun owners own all the tacti cool crap themselves, it’s practical for the intended use
Impressive. And shipping containers, eh? Very cool.
So… was the gun in a clamp, or hand-held? 😉
I can honestly say there is no way in hell I will ever step foot in NYC or Chicago (been there anyways) for anything, both cities are run by criminal syndicates that are hell-bent on making subjects out of their citizens.
Done
Someone should set up a website to receive copies of the emails so that when the Governor lies about how many pro gun emails he received, he can be proven as a liar.
I live in a small town in the foothills in maine. I think we will more be defending the town from the city folks than defending my individual farm. Its great that all you city dwellers have bug out bags packed for your “escape” to my rural area where all the “food” is but what makes you think that we are going to let you all in?
By this logic — which I really enjoyed — people of the gun are antibodies and police are professional phagocytes.