Free Republic

After the sweeping gun control, labeled as "gun safety" and a "background check" initiative passed in Washington state, many speculated that it would quickly be challenged in the courts.  They were right.  The Second Amendment Foundation has picked up the ball and is running with it.  Lawsuits against infringements of the second amendment have become something of a specialty of theirs, and they have had many notable successes.  They supported the Heller case, and were instrumental in McDonald, and Palmer, among others.  Here the SAF press release:  BELLEVUE, WA – The Second Amendment Foundation today filed a lawsuit in...

The Second Amendment Foundation has never been one to let the rights of law-abiding citizens get trampled on without putting up a fight. It should come as no surprise, then, that they’ve taken Washington state’s gun control Initiative 594 to court. Well, parts of it at least. Via SAF: The Second Amendment Foundation today filed a lawsuit in federal district court in Tacoma, seeking a permanent injunction against enforcement of portions of Initiative 594, the 18-page gun control measure that took effect Dec. 4, alleging that “portions of I-594…are so vague that a person of ordinary intelligence cannot understand their scope,” and that other...

Fed up with the passage of an 18½-page incoherent, rambling, unconstitutional gun control initiative that was bankrolled by billionaires, gun owners across Washington state held the largest felony civil disobedience rally in the nation’s history, brazenly titled “I Will Not Comply.” No one was hurt and no stores were looted. Between 1,000 and 3,000 lawful gun owners showed up openly armed at the state capitol in Olympia, Wash., on Saturday to defy the newly passed gun control law, I-594. Organizer Gavin Seim made the extraordinary nature of the rally very clear, "This isn’t just a protest. We are here to...

Protester rallied at the state Capitol in Olympia to denounce an expanded initiative on gun-purchase background checks that voters widely approved last month. Following a tradition going back to at least the Whiskey Rebellion of the early 1790s, demonstrators gathered here Saturday afternoon at the Capitol to protest the tyranny of what they consider unlawful American government. But instead of decrying a tax on distilled liquor such as Pennsylvanians did just years after the U.S. Constitution was ratified, demonstrators here at the “I Will Not Comply” rally denounced a law expanding gun-purchase background checks that was approved last month...

This law is ridiculous and is already having unintended consequences. With all the confusing jargon (intentions) its hard to tell what the real consequences are. So to avoid this confusions the Lynden Pioneer Museum is removing all of the WWII era firearms from the museum and returning them to its owners. Still this is the other headache trying to get this returned under i-594 ruling.Read the rest here.

LYNDEN — The Lynden Pioneer Museum will remove World War II-era guns from a current exhibit and return them to their owners, to avoid violating the new background-check law, according to the museum’s director. The new law, passed by voters this month as Initiative 594, requires background checks on the recipients of guns in all sales or transfers, with exceptions for family members and antiques. The 11 rifles the museum borrowed from collectors for the exhibit are too new to qualify as antique under the law, and I-594 is silent on any exemption for museum displays. “I read through the...

Photo by Dave Workman I-594 in Washington State is a horribly written initiative.   It consists of 18 page of legalese that seems more intent on trapping legal gun owners than on reducing violent crime.  Yet, it passed with almost 60% of the vote.  How did this happen?   I-594 (pdf) link.  Here is an analysis of the initiative by David Kopel. There is a long history of disarmist initiatives that have started with strong majority support in the polling, that find on election day the support has evaporated and they lose by large margins.   I had some hope that this...

<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>

Can you believe this? Woke up the other morning to a message from Facebook that my profile photo had been removed for copyright infringement after a complaint from the Washington Alliance for Gun Responsibility. This is the message received: Contact the Complaining Party If you believe that this content should not have been removed from Facebook, you can contact the complaining party directly to resolve your issue: Report #: 940883179273582 Rights Owner: Washington Alliance for Gun Responsibility Email: jack@wagunresponsibility.org You can read more here The fact I-594 proponents are resorting to this is evidence they are concerned the initiative may...

It didn’t take long for some progressives to exploit the tragic shooting at a Washington State high school last Friday, as they used it in an attempt to gain support for a ballot initiative requiring expanded background checks on all gun transfers in the state. Within hours of the Oct. 24 shooting that claimed the lives of two students at Marysville-Pilchuck High School, one of the billionaire backers of the Nov. 4 ballot initiative posted a link to the story on his Facebook page with the caption, “We need more school shootings!!! Vote yes on Initiative 591.” Facebook post by...

Alan Gottlieb, at the Gun Rights Policy Conference, asked a very scary question.  It is a question loaded with bad premises, freighted with unintended consequences.   It was terrifying when you consider where it leads us, as a society. It was: Would you sell a gun to someone you do not know? The premise that underlies the question is that selling a gun to someone that you do not know is irresponsible, and that it should be regulated by the government.  Alan followed up his question with another terrifying premise: If you sell your gun to someone who later uses...