By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
The number of homicides in Seattle continues to exceed the number of murders prior recorded to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the number of shootings for the first eight months of this year is higher than for the same period in 2023, according to a report in the Seattle Times.
The newspaper said the number of homicides was three fewer than the same period last year, but that did not include a murder Tuesday morning. The total suggests the number of slayings this year will be down from last year’s total, but maybe not by much.
However, the report got a quick reaction from the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, which released a statement Wednesday saying it “further reinforces the argument that gun control policies in the city, and Washington state have been a ‘complete failure.’”
While not all of the murders have been committed with firearms, it is evidence of another claim by gun owners: Even if guns are removed, people will continue killing one another with alternative weapons, or their bare hands and feet. Each year, according to data from the annual FBI Crime Reports, more people are killed with “personal weapons” such as feet and fists, than with rifles or shotguns, which account for a fraction of all homicides nationwide.
CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb complimented the Seattle Times for its revealing report. He recalled how the number of murders statewide since 2014—the year voters passed gun control Initiative 594—has more than doubled. In Seattle, since the city adopted a special sales tax on guns and ammunition, the number of homicides has tripled, even using data from the Seattle Police Department website, which lists 64 slayings in 2023.
However, that figure does not jibe with the figure published by the Seattle Times (69) earlier this year, or the popular, unaffiliated website on “X” (formerly Twitter) called Seattle Homicide, which says 73 people were killed last year.
The Seattle Times report focused on the number of murders in 2019 in several major cities, including Seattle. That was the year prior to the pandemic. In 2019, again using Seattle police data, there were 36 slayings in the city, which—if one relies in the Seattle Homicide website’s figure of 73 killings last year—means the number of murders has doubled in the past five years, despite the gun control laws.
“In 2014, when Washington voters passed gun control Initiative 594, the state reported 172 homicides, according to the FBI Uniform Crime Report,” Gottlieb recalled. “In 2023, according to a new report from the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs, the state logged 376 murders. You can play all the games with statistics you want, but that still amounts to more than double the number of murders since the state started passing increasingly stricter gun control laws.
The FBI no longer publishes crime data in the form of its traditional Uniform Crime Report. The agency switched in 2020 to a new data platform called the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). It is a user-unfriendly platform which no longer includes a single listing of all the states with the number of murders and weapons used. Nor is there an easily-found reference to justifiable homicides by police or armed private citizens.
The Seattle Times report comes just days after Ammoland News reported on the number of active concealed pistol licenses in the state has reached an all-time high of more than 700,000. The state Department of Licensing data shows a spike of 3,418 CPLs during July, bringing the total as of Aug. 1 to 701,020. The CPL number had been hovering just under the 700,000 mark for the past few years.
In a Tuesday statement, CCRKBA’s Gottlieb observed, “The data suggests two things. With fewer police officers and more gun control laws restricting honest citizens, criminals are more brazen. Obviously those laws adopted since 2014, promising less violent crime, have been total failures. The public is fed up, and it appears they are arming up.”
Gottlieb noted the crime increase has happened on Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s watch. He has been AG for the past 12 years, and is now running for governor against former Congressman and King County Sheriff Dave Reichert.
Ferguson has been an outspoken proponent of stricter gun control laws, including bans on so-called “assault rifles” and “large capacity magazines.” Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell has advocated for repeal of Washington’s firearms preemption statute, adopted back in 1985. Gottlieb said both men should “publicly acknowledge their gun control policies have failed miserably.”
“These gun laws have only penalized law-abiding citizens, and emboldened violent criminals,” Gottlieb said. “They should be repealed, and the people responsible for these laws should publicly apologize.”
