By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
After being pushed through Democrat-controlled committees in both the Washington State Senate and House on strict party line votes, a bill that will ban future sale and manufacture of so-called “large capacity magazines” for rifles and pistols could be up for a floor vote in the House any day now.
The speed with which this legislation has advanced demonstrates two things, according to opponents.
First, gun rights activists say it proves Democrats have gleefully accepted the mantle of being the “party of gun control/prohibition” and their agenda is one of gradual public disarmament, constitutional provisions be damned.
Second, the same activists say, facts do not matter to these agenda-driven extremists, and they have some powerful evidence to back their position. Two videos, one featuring then-Boone County, Ind. Sheriff Ken Campbell and the other showing Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich’s testimony opposing the legislation on Feb. 16, effectively destroy arguments by anti-gunners that a law limiting magazine capacity will effectively reduce violent crime.
It also provides evidence that Democrats only rely on law enforcement testimony regarding gun legislation when the lawmen or women agree with their gun control schemes.
That this proposal has advanced so far further underscores the contention that restrictive gun control measures have failed miserably in the Evergreen State, as shootings and murders have only increased. Liberty Park Press reported on the failure of Seattle’s once-ballyhooed “gun violence tax” a few days ago.
Engrossed Substitute Senate Bill 5078, opponents argue, will not prevent a single violent crime including a mass shooting, and it is probably unconstitutional. But when did that ever stop anti-gun extremists, opponents sarcastically ask.
Former Sheriff Campbell, now the administrator at Arizona’s world-famous Gunsite—a firearms training facility that has attracted people from around the globe, including at least one Middle East royal—produced a video on rate-of-fire using different capacity magazines back in 2013. The demonstration continues to refute claims by non-shooting, anti-gun lawmakers that limits on magazine capacity will somehow limit carnage.
Anti-gunners pretend Campbell’s video doesn’t exist.
During his testimony against ESSB 5078, Knezovich matter-of-factly stated, “There’s no evidence that this type of law is going to decrease the violence in the state of Washington. None whatsoever…If we think that we’re going to get ourselves out of this (crime) problem by banning magazines, you’re wrong.”
Experienced shooters repeatedly express disappointment the media hasn’t pursued this information in reporting on the legislation, and perhaps even challenging some of the contentions offered by its supporters.
