by Dave Workman | Senior Editor
The Washington Council of Police and Sheriffs (WACOPS) confirmed to TGM via telephone that it will oppose Initiative 594 and support Initiative 591, making it the second statewide law enforcement group to take that position.
Earlier, the Washington State Law Enforcement Firearms Instructors Association (WSLEFIA) also voted to oppose the gun control measure, throwing its support behind I-591.
I-594 is an 18-page gun control measure being touted as a so-called “universal background check” scheme. It is sponsored by the Washington Alliance for Gun Responsibility (WAGR), a Seattle- based group funded largely by wealthy elitists in the Greater Seattle area.
I-591 is a measure backed by a coalition of gun rights, hunting and law enforcement groups—including the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms— that requires the state to conduct background checks in compliance with a uniform national standard.
Just as importantly, I-591 also prohibits government gun confiscation, as happened following Hurricane Katrina, without due process.
WACOPS Executive Director Jamie Daniels told TGM that a position statement from the organization will be coming shortly. TGM will update when that statement is available.
But CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb didn’t wait. He issued a press release lauding WACOPS for its decision.
WACOPS is the state’s largest and oldest law enforcement group representing more than 4,500 active duty police officers and sheriff’s deputies, and more than 110 police guilds. Its decision dealt a serious blow to Evergreen State gun prohibitionists, and was something of a dash of cold water to King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg, who appeared before the group in support of I-594.
During that debate, he was countered by Brian Judy, veteran Washington State liaison for the National Rifle Association, which also opposes the measure, along with CCRKBA, the Washington Arms Collectors, Hunters Heritage Council, and Washington State Rifle & Pistol Association.
The gun control measure has also gotten some help from Michael Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns, and from his newer $50 mil- lion so-called “grassroots” group, “Everytown for Gun Safety.” By supporting I-591, WACOPS lends important credibility to the argument by backers of that mea- sure that there is a right way to conduct checks and keep guns out of the wrong hands, and I-594 is not the answer. Gottlieb, appearing before the Seattle Times editorial board, drove that point home by reminding them that in 2013, he attempted to hammer out compromise legislation that would have improved background checks with- out keeping permanent records, and with a provision to restore funding to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to resume “relief from disabilities” investigations that restore gun rights to certain individuals.
He told the newspaper editors that, while gun owners are not op- posed to background checks, there is a right way and wrong way to conduct them. He made it clear that I-594 is not the right way.
Gottlieb also asserted that I-594 amounts to an unfunded mandate for local police and sheriff’s departments, and it diverts resources away from public safety to bureaucratic measures that won’t accomplish anything.
“WACOPS members recognize that the gun control measure is not only excessive, it poses a burden on local agencies whose budgets are already stretched thin,” Gottlieb said.
During two days of debates, be- fore WACOPS and then the Times editors, proponents of I-594 had to acknowledge that if their measure passes, it will greatly expand the state’s pistol registry to include all handgun transactions, not just sales. It would also require checks anytime people loaned guns to hunting buddies for their own hunting adventures, and for loans of firearms to anyone outside the immediate family.
I-594 proponents have insisted this does not set up a “new” registration system, which is accurate, but by greatly expanding the existing system, it amounts to a “universal handgun registration” scheme, Judy told the Times group.
Two days after his appearances, Judy was the target of a WAGR e-mail funding appeal that asserted he was “heartless” for having sarcastically referred to Sandy Hook gunman Adam Lanza’s slaying of his own mother to access her firearms to commit the crime. The WAGR fund raiser also insisted that the gun prohibition lobby had the facts on its side.
The WACOPS announcement could be a serious blow to WAGR, which has already spent more than $1.5 million to push their measure. At the same time, the WACOPS vote comes as a major morale boost to the financially-strapped grass- roots supporters of I-591, which is a far simpler measure, covering a single page that requires back- ground checks to comply with a uniform national standard.
Gottlieb has issued a statement thanking WACOPS for its support, noting, “We’ve known I-591 had considerable support among line officers, and this makes it official. We also knew that street cops and deputies do not support the 18-page gun control measure being pushed by wealthy out-of-state and Seattle- area elitists.
“The gun prohibition lobby pushing I-594 falsely claims to have the facts on their side,” Gottlieb said. “They not only don’t have the facts on their side, they don’t have the cops on their side, either.”
