By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
The Washington State House Committee on Civil Rights & Judiciary approved two gun control bills which have garnered stiff public opposition, and the ranking Republican on that committee thinks proponents are simply looking for a legal fight.
One of the measures, House Bill 1143, mandates training and a permit-to-purchase issued by a police agency for anyone wanting to buy a gun. The other bill is HB 1240, which would ban so-called “assault weapons.”
State Rep. Jim Walsh from Grays Harbor County told TGM via telephone “There’s just no way to say it, the permit is a bold and brash impairment of rights. They’re just looking for a fight.”
Walsh is certain if the permit requirement passes, it will immediately be challenged in court.
Likewise, the semi-auto ban will also face a court battle, and Walsh says pressing such gun ban legislation strongly suggests “a pattern we’re seeing in other states; anideological belief that Bruen is wrong.”
He was alluding to last year’s Supreme Court ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen that struck down New York’s century-old concealed carry law requiring proof of a “good cause” in order to obtain a carry license. He calls such legislation “a strange experiment that these states are just basically ignoring the parameters set by the Bruen.”
Walsh asserted the rush with gun restrictions is being ramrodded by Democrat Gov. Jay Inslee and Attorney General Bob Ferguson.
“Everything is a fight,” Walsh observed. “What Inslee and Ferguson share in common is a belief in perpetual litigation. This is a fight they want. The governor and attorney general are absolutely certain these are winning issues.”
A third proposal—to repeal the state’s nearly 40-year-old preemption—got no action and the next time it might be considered will be Friday, Feb. 3, according to Walsh.
Gun dealer and Second Amendment activist Dan Mitchell told TGM via email, “State Democrats are racing headlong into a legal morass of unconstitutional gun control laws that are being stacked like cordwood nationwide. We’re watching the virtue signaling from a dying gun control industry. They’re going to go down kicking and screaming, costing us all money to challenges these laws, while paying states attorneys to defend the same laws.”
As word of the committee vote spread on social media, gun owners started weighing in. They are an unhappy bunch.
Walsh explained this is only the first step for either bill. They must still go to the House Rules Committee, where a decision will be made whether to send them to the House floor for a vote. From there, the bills will have to go to the state Senate and face the same process.
“They do not automatically become law,” he assured.
Walsh said both the permit requirement and the semi-auto ban are of “constitutional dubious nature.
“They are so flagrant,” he lamented. “The anti-gun people are looking for a fight in the courts.”
He said anti-gunners are rather self-righteous about the fight ahead.
“You hear them say, ‘It will take some time for this to be decided and in the meantime, we’re saving lives’,” he stated. “It’s an absolute triumph of pure emotionalism over reason.”
