By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
The man who reportedly helped draft an extremist gun control initiative adopted by Washington voters in 2018 is promising to “defend the rights of Washingtonians,” according to a report at MSN.com.
Democrat Nick Brown, a former federal prosecutor who, according to Axios.com, “helped draft and defend Initiative 1639, which, among other changes, raised the minimum age to buy semiautomatic rifles in Washington from 18 to 21.”
The same report said Brown, when he was in private practice, represented the Alliance for Gun Responsibility, a billionaire-backed and Seattle-based gun prohibition lobbying group.
At a joint press conference with Brown Thursday morning, current Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced he is preparing to do battle with the incoming Donald Trump administration, according to KOMO News. It is essentially a replay of the way he went after Trump back in 2017 at the beginning of Trump’s first term.
Ferguson mentioned Trump in his victory speech Tuesday night. It was as though a clock that stopped in 2021 had re-started again.
But now Evergreen State gun owners can wonder how Brown can defend their rights when he has worked for the lobbying organization whose goal has been to ratchet down on those rights. The Washington State Constitution, adopted in November 1889, has a strong right-to-bear-arms provision. Article I, Section 24 states unambiguously, “The right of the individual citizen to bear arms in defense of himself, or the state, shall not be impaired, but nothing in this section shall be construed as authorizing individuals or corporations to organize, maintain or employ an armed body of men.”
The wording was so good that when Arizona achieved statehood in 1912, that state’s constitution copied Washington’s right-to-bear-arms provision word-for-word.
Brown’s I-1639 didn’t just raise the minimum age for purchasing a modern semi-automatic rifle. It invented a definition for a so-called “semiautomatic assault rifle” that literally applies to any self-loading rifle, regardless of caliber, ever manufactured anywhere on the planet.
“‘Semiautomatic assault rifle’ means any rifle which utilizes a portion of the energy of a firing cartridge to extract the fired cartridge case and chamber the next round, and which requires a separate pull of the trigger to fire each cartridge,” is how the measure reads.
In addition, according to the Alliance for Gun Responsibility’s website, these are the main components:
- Raise the age to purchase semi-automatic assault rifles to 21.
- Create an enhanced background check for semi-automatic assault rifles, similar to what is required for handguns. This includes a local law enforcement check of the most up-to-date local court, criminal, and mental health records; a 10-day waiting period; and the completion of a firearm safety training course within the last five years.
- Create standards for Safe Storage. These standards hold gun owners accountable if a child or other prohibited person accesses and uses an unsecurely stored firearm to hurt themselves or someone else.
A quick reaction came from Jim Walsh, chairman of the Washington State Republican Party. He told Axios, “I encourage Mr. Ferguson to reconsider his approach. To grow beyond his petty, partisan obsessions with Donald Trump.”
In an online poll Thursday KOMO asked listeners, “How confident are you in the state’s ability to work with the Trump administration?”
An overwhelming 84 percent replied, “Not at all.” Only 6 percent expect the Ferguson administration to work with the president. Another 10 percent said, “Somewhat.”
