Free Republic

For months, gun control advocates in Washington State have peddled initiative 1639, which moves to create stricter firearms laws. On Tuesday, 60 percent of Washingtonians voted in favor of ballot measure, the Seattle Times reported. Specifically, i-1639 will: • Raise the age someone can purchase a rifle to 21. • Create an "enhanced background check system similar to what is used for handguns." • Require a person to complete a firearms safety training course. • Create a common stand for secure gun storage. Those in favor of the measure believe that even further gun laws will prevent mass shootings. “My...

Washington’s Supreme Court unanimously struck down the state’s death penalty Thursday, ruling that it had been used in an arbitrary and racially discriminatory manner. Washington has had a moratorium on executions since 2014, but the ruling makes it the 20th state to do away with capital punishment by legislative act or court decree. The court converted the sentences of the eight people on Washington’s death row to life in prison. “The death penalty is unequally applied — sometimes by where the crime took place, or the county of residence, or the available budgetary resources at any given point in time,...

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — Washington state’s Supreme Court has ruled that the death penalty violates its Constitution. The ruling Thursday makes Washington the latest state to do away with capital punishment. The justices said the “death penalty is invalid because it is imposed in an arbitrary and racially.” They ordered that people currently on death row have their sentences converted to life in prison.

A new poll from Washington’s eighth congressional district shows Republican Dino Rossi raking a commanding lead over Democrat Kim Schrier in the wake of Democrats’ failed smear attempt on Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. The poll, published Wednesday, shows Rossi with a commanding 10-point lead in the battleground district in his race against Schrier to replace retiring Rep. Dave Reichert (R-WA) in one of the districts that could determine the fate of the majority of the House of Representatives. At 49 percent, Rossi leads Schrier’s 39 percent, well outside the poll’s five percent margin of error. The survey of 400...

Organizers behind gun control Initiative 1639 did not comply with state signature gathering rules, according to a Thurston County superior court judge who ruled in favor of the NRA Friday. I-1639 will now be removed from the November ballot. “The National Rifle Association is glad to see the court today recognized how negligent, if not worse, gun control advocates were in their signature-gathering for this ill-advised ballot initiative,” said Chris W. Cox, executive director, NRA-ILA.Gun rights advocates protested the manner in which I-1639 collected signatures in Washington state. Secretary of State Kim Wyman even commented that her office has never...

The reporter who was interviewing President Obama when he famously swatted a fly is suddenly the buzz of DC, thanks to a New York Post gossip item about his marriage. According to unnamed "spies" for Page Six, CNBC Washington correspondent and New York Times writer John Harwood has split from his wife Frankie Blackburn, and it's all because of an alleged romance with Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) The Post's March 5 column quotes anonymous "well placed sources" who claim Harwood managed to keep the sordid details out of one DC paper "by sobbing to a reporter until he agreed to...

There’s no doubt now. The race for Congress in Eastern Washington is for real. Out of more than 120,000 votes counted, Republican U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers had a lead of a little more than 500 votes in Tuesday’s primary over Democrat Lisa Brown. The contest, between the high-ranking congressional Republican and a Democrat with years of experience in state political leadership, has drawn national interest and big spending as the parties vie for support in the first midterm election since President Donald Trump took office. Buoyed by the down-ticket performance of other Democrats, a beaming Brown took the stage...

Did anyone in America, the USA, take notice of the Mid-Term election primary held in Democrat, liberal, Progressive, Socialist, Communist State of Washington, yesterday? Shucks, why the ever effective Media has acted like Washington was not there. Lots of press coverage for Ohio, Kansas, Missouri & Michigan...but, alas, barely a word spoken about the wonder land of the Democrat, Liberal. Progressive, Socialist, Communist state of "Washington" and its adored heroes, Bernie Sanders & Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, last night & today. Wonder why? Answer...no one in heartland America cares & they say, let these fools and idiots destroy their state...and, California, and,...

A day after a video surfaced showing her defend a 22-year-old white nationalist, Cecily Wright resigned as chairwoman of the Spokane County Republican Party. The announcement came late Wednesday in a post on the local GOP’s Facebook page. On Tuesday, Wright had come under fire for introducing James Allsup, a former president of the College Republicans chapter at Washington State University, during a July 11 meeting of the local conservative group Northwest Grassroots. A prolific YouTuber known for racist taunts and extreme stances on immigration policy, Allsup, who now belongs to a white separatist group called Identity Evropa, was invited...