Robin Ball (in red jacket) traveled across Washington to testify in Olympia, despite an illness. She is being recognized for her work on firearms safety by the National Shooting Sports Foundation.
By Dave Workman
Senior Editor
Robin Ball, proprietor of the Spokane, WA Sharp Shooting Indoor Range and Gun Shop who is also one of the Evergreen State’s most outspoken opponents of a controversial gun control initiative on November’s ballot, has been recognized by the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) for her firearm safety efforts.
According to an NSSF press release, Ball organized a safety event at her range that involved two crime prevention deputies from the Spokane County Sheriff’s department. It’s part of NSSF’s campaign “S.A.F.E. Summer Across America.”
NSSF said Ball had been selected to bring the organization’s highly successful Project ChildSafe program to the attention of the sheriff’s office. As a result, she was able to host the Sharp Shooting open house. The two deputes provided information on firearms storage and safety, and they also handed out free Project ChildSafe gun locks and safety kits.
“As a retailer, it’s important that I help people understand the responsibility that comes with owning a gun,” Ball said. “The more retailers that spread the message about taking responsibility to secure a firearm to their local communities, the more cohesive the safety message will become across the nation. It is crucial to spread the gun safety message consistently so that it becomes a habit for everyone who owns a firearm.”
S.A.F.E. Summer Across America is an extension of NSSF’s S.A.F.E. Summer campaign, first launched in 2013, the organization said in a news release. Consistent with Project ChildSafe’s overarching message of “Own it? Respect It. Secure it,” S.A.F.E. Summer Across America is a reminder that proper firearm storage is the #1 way to prevent firearm accidents, theft and misuse, the group said.
Ball is widely known in Eastern Washington and neighboring northern Idaho for her activism and safety efforts.
A retired California sheriff’s deputy living near Coeur d’Alene, Idaho told TGM via e-mail that “Robin is as solid on 2A issues as you can get, she certainly is deserving of this (recognition).”
This past winter, while suffering from a seasonal illness, Ball still mustered the energy to fly across the state to testify at a state House of Representatives committee hearing on two competing gun-related measures, Initiatives 591 and 594.
I-591, supported by the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, along with state hunters, target shooters and two major law enforcement groups, would prevent the state from conducting background checks that do not comply with a uniform national standard. The measure would also prevent government gun confiscation – as happened following Hurricane Katrina – without due process.
I-594 is an 18-page gun control measure backed by a well-financed group calling itself the Washington Alliance for Gun Responsibility. It has already raised and spent more than $2.7 million, and in mid-summer, Michael Bloomberg’s $50 million so-called “grassroots” group, Everytown for Gun Safety, endorsed the measure.
The gun control initiative is ostensibly about “universal background checks,” but critics contend that it is much more than that. It expands the state’s pistol registry, which is an incomplete file covering all commercial handgun transactions. This measure would increase the data by requiring the inclusion of all handgun transfers, which include temporary handgun loans or gifts.
It also criminalizes firearm loans without going to the trouble and expense of a background check. The first offense is gross misdemeanor and the second offense is a felony under the measure. That means, say critics, that loaning a rifle or shotgun to a friend for a weekend hunting trip requires a check, and to get the firearm returned, the rightful owner must go through a second background check.
Ball also traveled to Seattle in June to appear before the Seattle Times editorial board, debating the problems with I-594. As a firearms dealer, she was the only true expert in the room on what passage of the measure would mean to state firearms dealers.
