This fall, the people will lead where state and federal officials have not.
Come Election Day, voters across Washington state will approve Initiative 594, a grassroots-led effort to require background checks on the sale of guns.
The measure will close the “gun show loophole,” as well as require those who want to buy or acquire guns over the Internet to obtain a background check, as well.
The assessment that I-594 will pass is not a bold prediction.
Instead, it’s an easy call given current views on our nation’s gun laws and the momentum that I-594 supporters continue to build.
Supporters note that it’s relatively easy for convicted felons, domestic abusers and the seriously mentally ill to currently evade background checks and get firearms with no questions asked.
Recent polls have found that support for the proposal has topped 70 percent. And organizers of the I-594 campaign have noted that financial support for the ballot measure has come from more than 7,100 supporters from 37 counties across the state.
Background checks have a history of working. Supporters of the proposal point to the success of the federal background check system, which has stopped 40,976 gun sales to prohibited purchasers in Washington state since 1998.
Momentum is growing for the “Yes on 594” campaign as recently released studies show the impact of background checks on all handgun sales.
In the 16 states and Washington, D.C. that conduct background checks on all handgun sales, supporters of I-594 report that 39 percent fewer law enforcement officers are murdered with handguns and 38 percent fewer women are shot with handguns by intimate partners.
And a recent analysis by Everytown for Gun Safety discovered that more than 4,000 guns are transferred to prohibited purchasers each year via five classified websites that sell guns without background checks.
In Kitsap County, the investigation found, an estimated 2,433 gun ads are posted online each year by unlicensed sellers. Kitsap ranks fourth among all Washington counties by volume of unlicensed online gun sales, and the research indicates an estimated 240 guns are sold online to criminals in Kitsap County each year.
This fall, Washington voters will make the wise choice to help keep firearms out of the hands of people who should not have them. It’s a move that’s long overdue.
