By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
When two candidates for the hotly contested office of Washington State attorney general squared off in a televised debate recently, one of the lead topics was gun control, and there was a marked difference of opinion between Democrat Nick Brown and Republican Pete Serrano.
Brown, the former U.S. attorney for Western Washington, came out squarely in support of gun control and more of the same, according to KXLY News.
“I believe as a state, we need to continue to advance gun safety measures here in Washington because that has results and saves lives,” said Brown, who has insisted on the campaign trail that the state’s restrictive gun laws have saved lives.
Serrano disagreed, telling a panel of journalists, “When I look at the large capacity magazines and the assault weapons bans, we had a lot of the impacted communities who were coming to the gun shops looking for safety and protection. We cannot ban protection in Washington.”
The Spokane Spokesman Review has interviewed both candidates and also covered the debate.
Serrano is currently mayor of Pasco, a city in southeast central Washington—a conservative area at the confluence of the Snake and Columbia rivers—and the attorney currently involved in a lawsuit challenging the state’s gun laws.
In April, according to the Spokane Spokesman-Review, a judge in Cowlitz County struck down the state’s 2022 ban on the sale of “large capacity magazines.” At the time, Judge Gary Bashor issued an opinion in which he observed, “Washington has held Art. 1, Sec. 24 is near absolute. The US Supreme Court recognized there are extremely few limits on the federal right, by recognizing there was no appetite to limit gun rights by the Founders. Though the specific technology available today may not have been envisioned, the Founders expected technological advancements. Many were inventors.”
Interestingly, current Attorney General Bob Ferguson, now in a race to become the next governor, quickly petitioned for a stay while the case is being appealed. Underscoring Ferguson’s animosity toward the ruling, and his anti-gun politics, he issued a statement at the time declaring the magazine ban to be constitutional.
“It is also essential to addressing mass shootings in our communities,” Ferguson added. “This law saves lives, and I will continue to defend it.”
Brown appears determined to follow Ferguson’s reasoning if he becomes the next attorney general.
Serrano, on the other hand, contended that banning protection in Washington “does not work.”
He may have the data on his side. In the ten years since Washington voters approved gun control Initiative 594, the number of homicides has gone up more than 100 percent, from 172 murders in 2014 to 376 in 2023, according to data from the FBI Uniform Crime Report and Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs.
The election is Tuesday, Nov. 5.
