Last week we mentioned SB5078, a ban on standard size magazines. Next Monday the Senate Law & Justice Committee will have a hearing for that bill. Pease go to
https://app.leg.wa.gov/CSIRemote/Senate and
Select “Law & Justice” under the committee button, then 1/25 under the meetings button and you’ll see 5078 listed as the third Bill that will be heard on Monday. Then select “Type of Testimony”. Please be certain to _at the least_ select “I would like my position noted for the Legislative record” and then choose Con from the dropdown (you must fill out the form with your contact information).
The other choices are “I would like to submit written testimony” and “I would like to testify live during the hearing” read at the link, below the list of choices, and registration -ends- one hour before the hearing begins. Written testimony must be in 24 hours in advance. It’s a good idea to work up testimony in advance with friends or when you have time to give it a little thought. Please be courteous and concise, you’re acting as an ambassador for your civil right to keep and bear arms and all your friends in that community. More notes on this below.
After you’ve made those choices for SB5078 go back to the CSIRemote/Senate link and choose the Law & Justice Committee for 1/26 and then bill SB5038 Open Carry, with the same three choices on how you contribute (pro/con, written testimony, or live) as above.
It is critically important that as many Washingtonians as possible oppose these bills before next week, this weekend gives you time to sort out a few words to say and get your input into the website. Some thoughts to consider on each:
SB5078 Ban on so called “high capacity” magazines:
Modern firearms are sold with magazines of 10 rounds and more. AR sporting rifles, and high capacity handguns have outsold most other types for decades. These are commonly owned firearms, and the magazines the bill would ban are the most commonly owned magazines for them, distributed with them by their manufacturers. Hundreds of thousands are in the hands of law abiding Washington Firearms Owners (we have nearly 630,000 Concealed Pistol licenses alone, issued in our state, severely impacted by law enforcements office restrictions for covid19). No purpose is served by banning them, while they have been used in crime there’s no reason at all to think that less crime would happen if they somehow disappeared. A ban would be an obvious infringement on gun owners right under article 1 section 24 of the Washington Constitution. Discuss with friends, there are nearly as many bad “features” to the bill as there are sentences in it, you’ll probably want to save a copy of what you write, we may face this again.
SB5037 “Prohibiting the open carry of certain weapons at public demonstrations and the state capitol” will be heard in Senate Law & Justice on Tuesday 1/26. 5037 is another whopper, the original document can be read at the bill page https://app.leg.wa.gov/billsummary?BillNumber=5038&Year=2021&Initiative=false “under original bill” (any bill can be viewed by replacing 5038 in that URL with the bill number). One issue with the bill is just how it limits open carry; “”Demonstration” 29 includes, but is not limited to, a march, rally, vigil, sit-in, or 30 picketing.” Picture 1,000 feet in a local city, you’re walking on 1st avenue with your handgun outside the belt for whatever reason and, one block over a group of people are staging a sit in you’re not even aware of. Should you have to leave your route simply because an officer tells you to? It’s hard to tell whether this is more a violation of your right to assembly or to keep and bear arms. But either way it’s not likely to make anyone any safer and the 1,000 foot ban is only one of many problems with it. Politely ask committee members to oppose and bill sponsors ( Kuderer, Das, Carlyle, Darneille, Dhingra, Hunt, Liias, Lovelett, Nguyen, Pedersen, Rolfes, Saldaña, Salomon, Wellman, Wilson, C., all linked at the bill page) to withdraw their support of this unconstitutional bill.
As always if you have any questions or thoughts please let me know at boyd@liberty.seanet.com, mention “wa alert” in your subject line.