By Dave Workman | Senior Editor
Seattle billionaire Paul Allen has become the latest big money contributor to as controversial gun control initiative that will face voters on the November ballot in Washington State.
According to the state Public Disclosure Commission’s website, Allen has donated a whopping $500,000 to the Initiative 594 campaign, and the Seattle Times – which still imposes an apparent new blackout on law enforcement’s opposition to the 18-page gun control measure – quickly reported the development.
The huge donation came at the same time a gun control group in Nevada began collecting signatures on a similar, though unconnected, initiative. Both measures tout so-called “universal background checks.”
The Nevada gun control effort is spearheaded by “Nevadans for Background Checks.” According to the Las Vegas Review Journal, backers include religious and law enforcement “leaders.” The Nevada measure, if it qualifies, will be presented to the Nevada Legislature in 2015. Lawmakers may then adopt it, or put it on the 2016 ballot, the newspaper said.
Washington has become something of a test effort to push gun control initiatives in states that have the process.
With Allen’s money in the game, fighting back will be an even more daunting challenge for gun rights, hunting and law enforcement groups opposing I-594 and supporting their alternative. Initiative 591 is backed by a coalition that includes the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, Washington Arms Collectors and other groups. It is supported by the Washington Council of Police and Sheriffs, the state’s oldest law enforcement group, and the Washington State Law Enforcement Firearms Instructors Association.
Allen has become the latest billionaire to throw money at the gun control campaign. He joins other Microsoft elites Steve Ballmer – the subject of a rather unflattering report in Sunday’s Seattle Times regarding his support of the Lakeside High School basketball program – and Bill Gates, who both chipped in to the campaign. Other billionaire gun control proponents include investment capitalist Nick Hanauer and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
In essence they are using their fortunes as weapons in the ongoing battle over gun rights.
In the Washington state effort, Bloomberg’s $50 million Everytown for Gun Safety has yet to be a major presence, but his Mayors Against Illegal Guns donated $30,000 to the I-594 campaign. But all the money flowing into the I-594 campaign from Seattle-area elites has effectively put the lie to claims that they are up against a well-financed “gun lobby.”
Gun rights advocates believe that anti-gunners in Nevada will learn from the initiative process in Washington, especially about money and messaging. If billionaires can essentially buy an election in the Evergreen State, and then the Silver State, gun rights organizations could be fighting expensive political brushfires everywhere.
So far, the NRA has stayed out of the I-591 effort, and has not joined the coalition opposing I-594. Instead, NRA has set up its own group to oppose I-594, with a reported initial bank account of $25,000.
