This page includes a variety of resources on gun control, including: links for taking action on in Washington State, contacting your federal congresspeople, connecting with organizations that are taking action, and finding more information from reliable and effective sources.
Federal Actions
Let your representative and senators know you support the following:
- Close the loophole that lets people buy guns at shows and through private sellers without background checks.
- Institute universal background checks for ammunition and gun buyers, a measure 80 percent of gun owners support.
- Remove the Dickey Rider from the federal budget and finally allow the Centers for Disease Control to research gun violence prevention.
- Fund evidence-based community anti-violence programs, like Ceasefire, which have been shown to reduce shootings.
Here are quick links to find your congress people’s contact info:
National Events in 2018
- March 14, 2018, National School Walk Out, Women’s March
- March 24, 2018: March for Our Lives, Everytown.Org, Sign Up to Organize a Rally in Your Community
- On March 24, 2018, students will rally in Washington D.C and in local communities across the country to demand action from our leaders.
- April 20, 2018: National Day of Action Against Gun Violence in Schools
Gun Control Legislation in the Washington State Legislature, 2018
These bills came up in the State Legislature in 2018
- Prevent dangerous access: HB1122
- Enhanced Assault Weapon Background Checks: HB1387 — SB5444
- Restoration of Local Authority
- Keep Crime Guns Off the Street: HB1483
- Suicide Crisis Prevention: SB6441
- Voluntary Waiver: SB5553
Click the bill numbers above to go to WA summary with legislative agenda, bill documents, comment form. For background on these bills, refer to Alliance for Gun Responsibility’s 2018 Legislative Agenda.
Federal Appeals Court: Assault Weapons Are Not Protected By the 2nd Amendment
Let’s follow Maryland’s lead. Maryland passed a ban on assault weapons that was upheld by a federal appeals court. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge, leaving the ban intact.
- Federal Appeals Court: Assault Weapons Are Not Protected By the 2nd Amendment, The Fourth Circuit decision is the first to expressly reject a right to bear an AR-15 or other “weapons of war.”, The Trace, February 2017
- Supreme Court shoots down gun cases, upholds ban on assault weapons and open-carry, The Supreme Court announced in November 2017 it had declined to hear two Second Amendment cases, leaving intact gun control laws in Maryland that restrict the types of weapons that can be bought, and in Florida that largely prevent gun owners from carrying their weapons in the open. The justices denied both cases without comment, leaving in place lower-court rulings upholding the two laws. (The Washington Times, November 27, 2017)
Spread the word that Maryland did this and we can, too.
Organizations With Actions
- Thurston Gun Sense
- Alliance for Gun Responsibility:
- Children’s Defense Fund, Protect Children, Not Guns
- Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund, Throw Them Out
References & Resources
- The Trace The Trace is an independent, nonprofit news organization dedicated to expanding coverage of guns in the United States. We believe that our country’s epidemic rates of firearm-related violence are coupled with a second problem: a shortage of information about the issue at large.
- Wikipedia: Gun Laws in the U.S. by State
- Make It Stop, Boston Globe
- What Explains U.S. Mass Shootings? International Comparisons Suggest an Answer, New York Times, November 7, 2017
- Deaths From Gun Violence: How The U.S. Compares With The Rest Of The World, NPR, February 15, 2018
- Four countries with gun control – and what America could learn from them, The Guardian, The UK, Australia, Japan and Germany have all taken measures to reduce gun homicides. Can the US learn anything from them?
Summary of Washington State Gun Laws:
We need to strengthen Washington’s laws. Did you know Washington doesn’t even require owners to register their guns? When police approach a house they don’t know how many guns the owners may have, raising their alarm level. Let’s improve everyone’s safety, police and public alike, and require owners to register their guns, require permits to purchase and a license to own. Let’s require background checks for all types of guns — long guns and hand guns alike.
- Washington State does not require a permit to purchase a long gun or a hand gun.
- Washington State does not require gun owners to register their firearms. Retail dealers must report pistol sales, but do not have to report long gun sales (including assault rifles)
- No owner license is required
- No permit is required to carry a long gun, including assault rifles. Permit is required to carry concealed handguns.
- Open carry of long guns and handguns is legal
- Local governments cannot pass more restrictive gun laws than the state
- No ban on assault weapons
- No ban on magazine capacity
- NFA: Suppressors, destructive devices and any other weapons are lawful to possess and use if registered properly with ATF. Short barreled rifles are lawful to possess and use if registered properly with the ATF
- Machine guns and short-barreled shotguns—unless purchased before July 1, 1994—are illegal for non-law-enforcement possession.
- Washington is not a stand-your-ground state, but it also is not a duty-to-retreat state. A duty to retreat generally means that you can’t resort to deadly force in self-defense if you can safely avoid the risk of harm or death (by running away, for example). More…
- Background checks are required for private sales, as of 2014.
References:
- Wikipedia: Gun Laws in the U.S. by State
- An interactive tool to compare gun laws by state: Everytown Gun Law Navigator
Videos to Share
A gun owner and 2nd amendment supporter talks to other gun owners about choosing to destroy is assault rifle.
Florida shooting survivor delivers an impassioned speech about gun laws (CNN)
Spread the Word… We can do this everywhere
Article: Assault Weapons Are Not Protected By the Second Amendment, Appeals Court Rules
