BELLEVUE, WA – While Evergreen State Democrats now controlling the State Legislature are laboring to disarm law-abiding citizens, they should try first to explain why their former governor released a career criminal who now is accused of drug and gun law violations, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA) is insisting.
The arrest of Percy Levy, 54, by the Snohomish Regional Drug Task Force, made local and national headlines. Levy was granted clemency by former far-left Democrat Gov. Jay Inslee in 2019. But published reports say Levy is now alleged to have had more than 2,200 grams of powder cocaine, 14.7 grams of rock cocaine and 556 grams of fentanyl in his home when authorities, acting with a warrant, searched the residence. They also recovered a stolen firearm, according to a report in the Lynnwood Times. As a convicted felon, the suspect cannot legally possess a firearm. Levy was reportedly arrested during a traffic stop in the city of Everett.
“The irony of this arrest is almost beyond comprehension,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “During this year’s legislative session, Democrats at the Capitol in Olympia have been pushing a variety of restrictive gun control laws. The recovery of an apparently stolen gun from the suspect underscores the fact that their already restrictive laws have failed to keep guns out of the wrong hands.
“What is worse, and yet so illustrative of the Democrats’ misguided efforts,” he continued, “is the fact that they appear poised to pass two more gun control bills, one to add more restrictions on the lawful carry of firearms outside of the home, and the other requiring honest citizens to actually get a permit from the State Patrol to purchase firearms. What other constitutionally-protected right requires police permission before it can be exercised? These measures, Senate Bill 5098 and House Bill 1163, amount to frontal assaults on both the Second Amendment and Article 1, Section 24 of the Washington State Constitution.
“Before the majority Democrats vote to adopt any more restrictive gun control laws in Washington,” Gottlieb challenged, “they better first figure out whose side they are on, the good guys or the bad guys. No honest Evergreen State citizen should have his or her constitutional rights impaired or infringed upon while Democrats—the party of gun control and confiscation—carry on their attacks on the rights of gun owners while allowing criminals what looks like a second chance to commit crimes.”