Well, That Didn’t Work
A Series Of Gun Control Laws Has Failed In Washington
What do you call it when somebody keeps trying the same thing over and over again and it keeps failing?
Why, gun control, of course. Or maybe it’s “gun reform.” Might be “gun safety” or “gun responsibility.” It sure as heck isn’t the “common sense” some people keep whining about. The proof of that pudding is found in the 2022 crime report from the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs (WASPC), which lowered the reality boom on Evergreen State anti-gunners last month.
The 2022 annual report on crime in Washington State, from
the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs, says
homicides were way up last year, 16.6% higher than in 2021.
Long story short, the WASPC report said Evergreen State murders climbed an alarming 96% from 2019 to 2022, the latter being the focus of this year’s 580-plus page document. The law enforcement group didn’t say so, but the report amounts to a refutation of restrictive gun control laws passed in the Evergreen State since 2014, and it should serve as a lesson to lawmakers and Second Amendment activists in every other state.
The Evergreen State has become a test tube for anti-gunners to try everything, see what works and what doesn’t, and then try it elsewhere, having learned from experience. They’ve even admitted it. Translation: What’s happening in Washington could be coming to a place near you.
Washington was a moderate state with good gun laws, but it went politically “blue” some years ago. One result has been a train wreck of regulatory moves to restrict and discourage gun ownership, all on the prediction they would reduce violent crime, including murder. The data says different, and one could apply the same outcome to California, New Jersey, Maryland, New York and a half-dozen other states where restrictions have been layered on restrictions.
But the gun ban bunch has a problem in the Northwest because Washington has one of the strongest right-to-bear-arms state constitutional provisions in the nation; so good, in fact, that when Arizona achieved statehood in 1912, their constitution copied Washington’s RKBA provision (adopted in 1889) word-for-word. The stage is set for legal warfare.
A little history is in order. In November 2014, Washington voters were convinced by a multi-million-dollar political campaign to pass Initiative 594, which required so-called “universal background checks.” The following year, the state reported 209 homicides, including 141 involving firearms, according to the FBI Uniform Crime Report for that year.
Four years later, in November 2018, another big bucks campaign was mounted to pass Initiative 1639, a nasty piece of policy which stripped young adults of their right to purchase any semiautomatic rifle (even a rimfire!), because they were lumped into the sweeping definition of “semiautomatic assault rifle.” Also in this measure was a 10-day waiting period for buying a semi-auto rifle, a training mandate in order to buy such a rifle, and an “enhanced background check” (whatever that is).
Gun rights groups, including the NRA, fought hard to prevent I-1639
from becoming law, and they accurately predicted the restrictive gun
control law would not deliver on predictions of lower violent crime.
In 2019, the first year this measure was in effect, the FBI Uniform Crime Report provided the brief appearance the law was working. That year, there were 194 murders, including 135 committed with guns. However, as Gen. George Patton once related, “All glory is fleeting.” The next year (2020), the Crime Report said there were 279 slayings. It must be noted, this was the first year the FBI used its fancy new Crime Data Explorer to report the data. This system is the most user-unfriendly platform I’ve ever tried to work with, and the data might be incomplete.
By last year, according to the WASPC report, Washington’s body count had climbed to 394. Suffice to say whatever the gun control crowd had intimated during their campaigns, it hasn’t materialized.
Enter the CCRKBA
The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms is coincidentally headquartered in Bellevue, Wash. Its chairman, Alan Gottlieb, actively campaigned against passage of both initiatives, warning voters that all the promises and predictions about the benefit of gun control were, well, wishful thinking.
CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb told Washington voters pie-in-the-sky
predictions of lower crime rates if they passed gun control initiatives
was wishful thinking. He was right.
An hour after the WASPC report was released, Gottlieb issued a statement in which he said the data amounted to a vindication of his efforts. It also put the gun control crowd on the spot, but they were nowhere to be found. Indeed, nary a peep was heard. By no small coincidence, this pattern has been repeated in other states.
“Passage of Initiative 594 in 2014 and I-1639 in 2018 have accomplished nothing other than to create massive impairments, which we believe are unconstitutional, for law-abiding Washington citizens,” Gottlieb said.
He had some choice words for gun control proponents: “It is time to hold these people accountable, and for the Legislature to acknowledge that gun control extremism has been an abject failure. Restrictions created by I-594 and I-1639 can legally be repealed, along with (Attorney General Bob) Ferguson’s 2022 ban on magazines and this year’s ban on so-called ‘assault weapons.’ Washington citizens deserve better and it is time for a change of direction.”
Cutting to the chase, the gun control lobby in Washington — like their fellow prohibitionists elsewhere — overlooked, or deliberately ignored, the one major flaw in their schemes. Criminals don’t obey gun control laws. This is news the gun ban bunch is loathe to hear, so they won’t even acknowledge the problem. Of course, they don’t have to because nobody in the establishment media will challenge them.
KING-TV in Seattle — the local NBC affiliate — tried to spin the report thusly: “While the total number of murders reached an all-time high in 2022, Washington state’s murder rate was higher in 1994 when adjusted for population, according to data compiled from the report. There were 297 murders reported across the state in 1994.”
This “murder rate” game may fool some people, but it doesn’t pass the body count smell test. More people are being killed as gun laws become stricter, which wasn’t supposed to happen.
Another contributing factor to rising crime in Washington is
the loss of commissioned police officers. It leaves cops like this
group in Bellevue, photographed by Dave while making an arrest, with their hands full.
One other thing the WASPC report revealed is that law enforcement numbers have declined in Washington.
“The total number of commissioned officers statewide (last year) was 10,666, down from 10,736 in 2021, while the total population of the state increased by 93,262,” the report said. “Washington again is ranked 51st out of the 50 states and District of Columbia for the number of officers per thousand residents.”
Shouldn’t surprise anyone that many of the same people who have supported the gun control crusade were also involved in the “de-fund police” movement spawned in 2020 after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis while being restrained by police.
In Washington, especially in Seattle, the criminal element has been emboldened by no-pursuit, no-bail policies. When there are fewer police officers around—the city has lost hundreds of commissioned officers over the past three years — criminals tend to take advantage of it. Thus endeth the history lesson, for now.
Robbery Gone Bad
A pair of would-be robbers in Texas made a fatal error in the victim selection process when they attempted to rob an armed citizen, who fatally shot both of them.
According to The Blaze, this was a broad daylight caper on July 7 in which the unidentified suspects approach their intended victim at an ATM in San Antonio. Both suspects were described as being “in their 20s.”
The unidentified armed citizen was cooperating with the investigation, and Police Chief William McManus might deserve an award for mastery of the proverbial brief summation.
“It was a robbery that didn’t go well for the robbers,” McManus said, according to Fox News.
Dave’s April column about reloading for the .41 Magnum drew a nice note from a reader.
We Got Mail
I recently was forwarded a great email from Ron Bruce of Lake City, Colorado in response to my April 20 piece on “Adequate Horsepower” referencing loading for my .41 Magnums with hard cast lead semi-wadcutters. He shared quite a history of shooting, which I sadly had to edit for brevity.
“Dave- Loved your article on the .41 Magnum, while you also touched on the Colt Python…
“I’ve got 12 S&W revolvers and NONE have that durned internal lock. I also have 8 Colt revolvers and 9 Colt pistols. Plus, a Colt CAR-15A2 that I bought for Diane’s patrol rifle long before they issued them. Fitted with an older style Fabian Brothers muzzle stabilzer, it is the flattest shooting AZ I’ve ever shot. I recently discovered the next generation of Fabian’s is back in production and I bought one for another AR. A bit different design but still works the same magic.
“Should you read this, sorry to have taken too much of your time. I enjoy everything you write. Keep up the great work.”
Ron and Diane Bruce
Lake City, CO
Dave replies: Thanks for your generous remarks and I’ll do my best to keep it up. Your history with the .41 Magnum Model 57 is the stuff great memories are made of. Stay safe and thanks for reading American Handgunner!
