I’m not going to say.
But I will tell you about some things discovered by our good man, The Heartless Libertarian, during his looksee into Washington State Gun Bigot Politics.
HB 1014 was the first to be “Prefiled for Introduction”. Titled “The Safe Kids Act of 2007” it is essentially what a gun bigot would call a bill “encouraging the safe storage of firearms”, but it is nothing of the sort.
First of all, it is unenforcable. It would require your home to be entered and searched for loaded firearms without trigger locks or not locked in a childproof compartment. Secondly, it is toothless, with violations being not even a misdemeanor crime but a “civil offence” where the fine tops out at $50.
HB 1014 will basically be nothing more than a law to harass child-rearing gun owners. It will not be used to prosecute adults whose children are injured or killed by their lack of knowledge of firearms, nor will it be used against teenage gang-members who shoot people.
Next up is HB 1026, which was “Prefiled” three days after HB 1014. It purports to close the “Gun-Show Loophole”, which any reasonable individual knows does not exist.
It does this by basically banning non-FFL dealers from gun shows and requires them to do the full-on NICS background check. It also requires that the dealer post their license at their table for inspection. Likewise, the show organizers are liable for each and every sale that goes on at that show. If someone who is not an FFL dealer manages to even get a table at the show and wants to complete the sale of a firearm, they must do so only through one of the licensed dealers at the show.
While I would highly suggest to Washington State residents that calling, writing or emailing you representative be your first course of action and that having your firearm owning friends and relatives who live here do the same be your second, The Heartless Libertarian has something else you can do.
He recommends, and I concur, that you stop by a site called WashingtonVotes.Org. There you can read up on legislation and leave comments on them.
Update: You can find mine here and here.
As I have pointed out here and here, HL reminds that none of these pieces of legislation so highly demanded by Seattle Mayor Nickles would have stopped any of the high profile crimes that have taken place in the Seattle/Tacoma/Olympia/Everett metropolitan area; neither the recent murder at Foss High School or the murders committed by Kyle Huff, the drugged out raver who killed six other partygoers.
Not only would they have not stopped any of those serious crimes, HB 1026 has the potential to stop a single mother from buying her only source of protection from the thugs in her neighborhood and HB 1014 will, not has the potential, but will, stop a parent from defending themselves and/or their children from a violent attack.
Take a look at Washington DC, Boston, Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles for examples. Fewer firearms in the hands of private, law-abiding citizens, with more restrictions on their ownership equals more crime than Washington could ever have a nightmare about.
And because of the politcal affiliations of the sponsors of these pieces of legislation, they also prove this David Horsey cartoon to be a lie:
Not time for the black flag, but get out your wallet. The NRA-ILA will need some help fighting off these bonehead laws.
BTW, the safe gun storage law isn’t about handing out tickets for improperly stored guns. It is a simple device to allow a lawyer to separate you and your insurance company from your money.
If you have guns stolen, and one of them is later used in a crime, and you didn’t have it locked up, according to precedent, you may be sued for liability for the results of that crime. Think dead executive of medium sized company. Think tens of millions of dollars. Think the type of harassing lawsuits all the gun manufacturers have to put up with from twerps like Bloomberg.
THAT’S what they’re talking about with HB1014. Once again, it’s all about the lawyers. If it’s passed, expect your homeowner’s insurance company to introduce new riders that would eliminate any coverage you had for guns, forcing you to buy a spendy new floater policy to cover them. For certain, gun owner’s insurance would go up (would have to, because insurance companies are at much more risk). The insurance companies’ attorneys will look at the law and decide what type of storage is safe enough to suit THEM.
Don’t think of this law as a toothless harassment. The plaintiff’s attorneys certainly don’t; they look on it as a goldmine.
I already have to put up with spendy floater policies for my firearms for reasons I won’t go into here.
And I insure through quite possibly the most gun-friendly company out there.
What? Horsey lied? Say it ain’t so!
Has that jackass ever told the truth?
Here’s the ifnal thought: if you have gun insurance, to get full coverage you have to discribe each and every gun in your floater. Caliber, serial number, model, capacity (all rifles are five shot, IH2TU).
Bingo, you have just registered all your gunz. think about THAT.
I have thought about that, and I pay slightly more to just have a larger blanket policy covering firearms.
I take the pictures, I log the make, model, serial# and I encrypt it in my computer and a second location known only to me.
If something ever happens (smoke damage/fire is more likely than theft, in my case) I turn that info over to the ins. co. and we hash it out from there.
It is just that easy.