Free Republic

Federal wildlife officials have granted protection to the Gunnison sage grouse, a move that could to bring restrictions on oil and gas drilling and other land uses to preserve the bird's habitat in Colorado and Utah. ... They're related to the greater sage grouse, which is at the center of a separate and larger debate over federal protection across 11 Western states.

Some local gun owners are bracing for trouble after the passage of I-594. A few of them believe the government is out to take their guns and they are buying them like crazy. Washington's newest firearm law passed with a 60 percent approval from voters but it is little comfort to some gun owners. "I feel like this is just continuously progressing in a way to limit the amount of firearms that can be purchased by legal citizens," said gun owner Mark Jones.

Initiative 594 just passed in Washington State, bringing on residents mandatory gun background checks and making it a felony to privately purchase or even hand a gun to a friend without government permission. A story in the Seattle Times the morning after the mid-term elections, revealed the true motives of the I-594 campaign and its proponents. It didn’t take long for the other shoe to drop and the rest of their anti-rights agenda to be exposed. Other states they’re now targeting with initiatives include Oregon, Nevada, Arizona, and Maine. Our rights are and always have been their real target, not...

A protest is being organized on Facebook by gun owners upset that gun control measure I-594 passed. I don't like Facebook, but it is a way to reach out to others so they can be aware of this event. This is taking place on Saturday Dec 13, 2014 in Olympia, the state capital. More details here. Just letting you know there is a link on that page that goes to FB Rally page info. More to come on this.

Washington Initiative 591: Limit background checks for gun sales. Washington Initiative 594: Require background checks for gun sales.

Initiative Measure No. 594 Concerns background checks for firearm sales and transfers - County Results

It’s election day in Washington state, and no race on the ballot has provided more intrigue than the battle between Republicans Clint Didier and Dan Newhouse to replace retiring 10-term Congressman Doc Hastings. Tonight culminates roughly nine months of campaigning going back to February when Hastings first announced his retirement, creating what The Daily Kos described as a “clown car” of 12 candidates who fought tooth and nail up until the August primary.Didier, a tea party ally, finished six points ahead of mainstream conservative Newhouse in the primary with 32 percent of the vote. Newhouse’s campaign believes that with improved...

SPOKANE, Wash. — No matter who people vote for on Tuesday, a Republican is almost certain to win the open U.S. House seat in central Washington. Dan Newhouse, from the establishment wing of the GOP, is locked in a tight race with tea party Republican Clint Didier to succeed retiring Republican U.S. Rep. Doc Hastings. The 4th Congressional district covers Yakima, the Tri-Cities and much of the central portion of the state. This is the first time in state history that two members of the same party advanced to the general election for a House seat, which is a result...

Author’s note: This is the first of a series of posts covering the two Washington State gun initiatives to be decided by voters this fall. Here I consider I-591, the “Protect Our Gun Rights Act”. Future posts will address I-594, an opposing bill to I-591. On November 4th, Washington will be the only state in the country to address gun issues at the ballot box. The first of which, Initiative 591, is a simple, one page bill that in two operative sections places restrictions on state agencies pertaining to due process and potential background checks on the recipient of a...

<p>OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and his wife, Melinda, have donated $1 million to a Washington state campaign seeking to expand gun control measures in Washington state, bringing their coffers up to nearly $6 million dollars.</p> <p>The large donation comes on the heels of fellow Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s $500,000 donation earlier this month. Also last week, venture capitalist Nick Hanauer donated an additional $1 million, bring his total donation to the campaign to nearly $1.4 million.</p>

It's All Morally Relative - End Support for Israel An Analysis of the After Effects of the Terrorist Attack by R. Alexander September 19, 2001 Many of us were surprised to hear responses coming from both U.S.citizens and our so-called allies suggesting the U.S. somehow deserved the terrorist attack. With righteous moral indignation, these enlightened critics, suddenly experts on terrorism, lecture us, claiming "this would not have happened if the U.S. hadn't been intervening in the Middle East." This criticism is said with a straight face by Americans who see no problem driving an oversized SUV that gets 12 miles ...

Shaylee Chuckulnaskit, Teen Wounded in Washington School Shooting, Dies Oct 31, 2014 By ABC NEWS Shaylee Chuckulnaskit, 14, a victim in the shooting at a Washington state high school, died today, officials at Providence Regional Medical Center Everett said. She was the fourth person to die in the shooting. Two other students — Andrew Fryberg, 15, and Nate Hatch, 14, remain at Harborview Medical Center in critical condition. Hatch suffered a gunshot wound to his jaw. "Our hearts are broken at the passing of our beautiful daughter. Shay means everything to us. In Shay’s short life she has been a...

A week after a school shooting in the Seattle area, residents of Washington state are faced with two competing ballot initiatives on guns this election. Initiative 594 would require universal background checks for gun sales, whether online, at a gun show or trade. Initiative 591 says no such changes would be made at a state level until Congress votes for the country to adopt universal gun control.

In less than one week, voters in Washington state will decide on two competing gun measures: I-594, the Washington Universal Background Checks for Gun Purchases Initiative, and I-591, the Washington Gun Rights Measure. Via National Journal: [I-594] would mandate background checks as a condition of most gun purchases and transfers in the state (with exceptions for weapon transfers within families and purchases involving antique guns). Its main goal is "closing the gun-show loophole," says Geoff Potter, communications director for the Washington Alliance for Gun Responsibility, the group spearheading the effort. Via Townhall columnist Rachel Alexander: Washington’s Second Amendment Foundation came...

While backers of billionaire-funded Initiative 594 are planning one more rally this Saturday – using the Marysville-Pilchuck school shooting as something of a campaign prop – another county sheriff has joined 26 of his colleagues to oppose the measure, making the count more than two-thirds of the elected sheriffs against the measure. Reports from several readers to Examiner late yesterday indicated that many, if not all, of these lawmen have apparently been targeted by "robo-calls" from I-594 supporters, claiming the sheriffs are out of touch with their constituents, and have been co-opted by the "gun lobby." Perhaps they've read the...

Would you vote for a law that makes criminals of many neighbors, relatives and friends? Initiative 594 would do exactly that. #In their zeal to impose “universal background checks,” the creators of I-594 have written a law that would require nearly all “transfers” of firearms to be conducted at the premises of a Federal Firearms License dealer.

Gun ranges are frequently targeted by left-wing activists in the government, and sadly, one is finally about to be wrongly shut down.

Gannett Company - Link only

Twenty-five minutes after Friday’s shooting at Marysville-Pilchuck High School, two air ambulances hovered near the campus, prepared to transport the critically wounded to the region’s highest-rated trauma hospital. After the Marysville-Pilchuck High School shooting, an empty Airlift NW helicopter leaves Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett at 12:30 p.m. But at 1:35 p.m. the crew was called back to transport one of the victims to Harborview. Firefighters, medics and hospital staff move one of the Marysville-Pilchuck High School shooting victims from an ambulance into Everett’s Providence Regional Medical Center on Friday. Twenty-five minutes after Friday’s shooting at Marysville-Pilchuck High School,...

Within hours of the mass killing Friday at Marysville-Pilchuck High School in Washington State, a number of gun control groups and lawmakers were quick to make statements calling for action including increased regulation. Some of these national groups, such as Everytown for Gun Safety, have invested heavily to the tune of nearly $2 million into a ballot initiative in the state, I-594, to expand background checks to include almost all gun sales. Everytown was joined in its call to action by the Washington Alliance for Gun Responsibility (WAGR), the direct sponsor of the measure. To those voices were added members...