Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan. (YouTube, KCPQ News)
Senior Editor
The mayor of Seattle appears poised to take on Washington State’s 35-year-old model preemption law by proposing legislation requiring so-called “safe storage” of firearms and “increased civil penalties…for not reporting lost or stolen firearms.”
But Evergreen State gun rights activists are wondering if this effort, launched by Mayor Jenny Durkan, will stand up under the law, which places sole authority for gun regulation in the hands of the State Legislature. Seattle lost in court when it tried to ban firearms in city park facilities about eight years ago, when it was sued by a coalition that included the Second Amendment Foundation, National Rifle Association, Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, Washington Arms Collectors and five individual citizens.
Here is the language of Washington’s model law:
“The state of Washington hereby fully occupies and preempts the entire field of firearms regulation within the boundaries of the state, including the registration, licensing, possession, purchase, sale, acquisition, transfer, discharge, and transportation of firearms, or any other element relating to firearms or parts thereof, including ammunition and reloader components. Cities, towns, and counties or other municipalities may enact only those laws and ordinances relating to firearms that are specifically authorized by state law, as in RCW 9.41.300, and are consistent with this chapter. Such local ordinances shall have the same penalty as provided for by state law. Local laws and ordinances that are inconsistent with, more restrictive than, or exceed the requirements of state law shall not be enacted and are preempted and repealed, regardless of the nature of the code, charter, or home rule status of such city, town, county, or municipality.”
The question many in the press have asked is whether this language has any “wiggle room” for the mayor and her colleagues to adopt such a measure.
According to a statement from Durkan’s office, Durkan and City Councilwoman M. Lorena Gonzalez, along with City Attorney Pete Holmes, will be “developing legislation.” The mayor says this will follow “outreach and engagement with stakeholders including gun owners, safety advocates, community members, public health experts and others.”
There are questions about who the “safety advocates” are in this process. There are two gun control groups in the Jet City, the billionaire-financed Alliance for Gun Responsibility and the less active Washington CeaseFire, and they are routinely referred to as “gun safety groups” by the local media.
The Seattle P-I.com recalled that, “Washington has experienced its share of killing sprees: The murders at Cafe Racer in Seattle; the murder of five at the Burlington Mall; the gunning down of students at Marysville-Pilchuck High School; the killings of young people at a Mukilteo party; and last September’s murder of one student and wounding of three others at Freeman High School near Spokane.”
What the story omitted was that all of these crimes violated existing gun laws, and that the shootings at Mukilteo, Burlington Mall and Freeman High School all happened after passage of I-594. Second Amendment activists have repeatedly pointed out that the initiative, however well meaning, didn’t prevent any of those incidents.
Durkan did not say how a safe storage requirement would be enforced.
