By Dave Workman | Senior Editor
A wild shooting in downtown Seattle that left one woman dead and seven others, including a 9-year-old boy, injured just might underscore what a national grassroots gun rights organization said ten days ago about how gun control had “failed miserably” in Washington State.
It was the third shooting incident in the city in 24 hours.
Wednesday evening’s chaos erupted at the notorious intersection of Third Avenue and Pine, long known as “one of the grittiest” areas in the city’s downtown area, according to the Seattle Times. One day before, a 55-year-old man was gunned down in a stairwell less than a block away, the newspaper noted.
Police combed the area but could not find a suspect.
CCRKBA Issues Statement on Seattle Shooting:
CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb.
Wednesday evening’s chaotic mass shooting in downtown Seattle, in which both suspects appear to have long criminal backgrounds, underscores what the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms warned about more than five years ago: Feel-good gun control policies don’t stop violent crime.
“In 2014,” recalled CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, “we opposed Initiative 594 with its so-called ‘universal background checks’ and warned that it would not prevent bad guys from getting guns. A year later, we warned the City of Seattle that adopting a tax on firearms and ammunition would create a false sense of accomplishment, but wouldn’t prevent violent crime, and Wednesday night proved us right on both counts.”
One woman is dead and seven other people were injured in the horrific incident. Police have identified two suspects, both with extensive backgrounds that include arrests and convictions, according to published reports. There were reportedly outstanding warrants on both suspects at the time of the shooting. They are considered armed and dangerous, according to Seattle Police.
“Yet,” Gottlieb observed, “here we are, making national news for a terrible incident that these gun control laws were supposed to prevent. And what’s happening right now in the state legislature? Seattle-area lawmakers are busy pushing even more gun control proposals that will only impact honest citizens and do nothing to stop criminals who misuse firearms.
“It’s being reported both suspects have extensive records with multiple arrests and convictions,” he added. “Instead of complaining about guns on the street, why aren’t officials in Seattle and Olympia working to keep people like these two suspects off the street? One of these guys reportedly has at least 44 arrests and 20 convictions, and the other has at least 21 arrests and 15 convictions. That’s just outrageous!
“The firearms community would be delighted to work with lawmakers to find genuine solutions to violent crime,” he said, “but when we’re faced with an avalanche of legislation that only erodes the rights of honest gun owners and penalizes them for crimes they didn’t commit, that’s not a solution it’s a smokescreen.
“More than 25 years ago,” Gottlieb recalled, “Washington gun owners got behind ‘Three Strikes’ and ‘Hard Time for Armed Crime’ initiatives because those laws focused on bad guys while leaving good guys alone. What happened in Seattle might be a wake-up call to the gun control crowd to try it our way again, instead of continuing this campaign to erode our rights while violent criminals run loose.”
Last year, Seattle logged 332 shooting incidents, which was up from 313 in 2018, according to KIRO-TV News. There were also 18 firearm-related homicides last year, the most since 2012, according to Seattle Police data.
And that’s evidence the gun control crusade launched six years ago by the Seattle-based, and billionaire-backed Alliance for Gun Responsibility and state lawmakers whose districts are in the area has been a total failure, according to the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms. CCRKBA is based in Bellevue, located across Lake Washington from Seattle.
As reported earlier this month by Ammoland News, “Seattle Police data show more reports of shots fired in the years following passage of Initiative 594 in 2014. I-594 was the so-called ‘universal background check’ measure that was supposed to keep guns out of the wrong hands. CCRKBA joined with several other groups to oppose that measure…
“Prior to 2014, incidents of shots fired in Seattle never topped 300,” Ammoland reported. “Since 2015—the first full year following passage of the gun control measure—the number of shooting incidents has not dropped below 300.”
The story also recalled how the Seattle City Council adopted a “gun violence tax” on the sale of firearms and ammunition inside city limits in 2015. In 2016, the city posted 18 slayings of which 11 were gun-related. In 2017, the city recorded 27 murders, including 16 involving firearms. In 2018, the number was 32, according to SPD data, and 13 of them involved guns. Last year, SPD said, there were 28 slayings.
Further demonstrating gun control’s failure are the FBI Uniform Crime Report statistics. In 2016, Washington reported 195 total homicides including 127 involving firearms. In 2017, the state posted 228 total slayings including 134 killings with guns and in 2018 there were 232 murders including 138 committed with firearms.
“We find it beyond ironic,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, “that the exact opposite of what gun control proponents predicted has occurred. Their extremist agenda has failed to reduce gun-related crime as was implied when they pushed through their various measures.”
Now, in Olympia, Seattle-area lawmakers are pushing even more gun control legislation. Critic testified this week that such gun law proposals only penalize law-abiding citizens.
KIRO is reporting that police have identified as suspects in the shooting, and are “known to Seattle police.” Both are 24 years old and both apparently have lengthy criminal histories.
Meanwhile, licensed concealed carry in the state has surged as more citizens concerned with their safety are arming up. At the end of 2015, Department of Licensing statistics show there were 509,578 active concealed pistol licenses. At the end of 2019, there were 646,344 active CPLs.
Olympia’s reaction: Legislation has been introduced to require proof of gun safety instruction—more red tape—to obtain or renew a CPL.
