Washington State Considers Gun Bans Which, Shockingly, Mostly Affect Law Abiding Citizens

16 Jan, 2017 by William Teach

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Democrats have lots of talking points for in public. Things like they just want to keep guns out of the hands of criminals. That they want to reduce gun violence. We’ll get things like they believe in the 2nd Amendment, and just want common sense gun control. That they don’t really want to confiscate guns. But, when they aren’t yammering to the general public, we see that they really do want to mostly ban guns from the law abiding citizens, and when they submit legislation, it isn’t about criminals, it’s about banning guns from the hands of non-criminals

(Breitbart) Washington state senator David Frockt (D-Seattle) and representative Strom Peterson (D-Edmonds) are pushing bans that will outlaw many of the most popular semiautomatic rifles and pistols in their state.

The bans are ubiquitously aimed at law-abiding “assault weapon” and “high capacity magazine” owners and also criminalize numerous semiautomatic pistol owners along the way. They do this by making the age old Democrat mistake of banning guns in light of cosmetic features, such a flash hider, a thumb hole stock, a collapsible stock, or a threaded barrel, as if any of these features make a round fly faster and alter the basic operation of the weapon.

By focusing on these things, Frockt and Peterson paint with a wide brush, expanding the “assault weapons” moniker to outlaw a plethora of weapons.

Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson is also involved

For example, Frockt’s bill clearly bans any “semiautomatic pistol that has the capacity to accept a detachable magazine” and also has a “threaded barrel.”

Quick question: How many crime scene photos have you seen where a pistol with a threaded barrel was used? My answer: None. But Frockt’s bill goes after law-abiding citizens who possess them any way, as if having a threaded barrel inclines one to crime.

As bad as this all sounds, it could be even worse if passed, because the bill is written in a way that could open it to broad interpretation. Those of you who own a semiautomatic pistol understand that the barrel on the vast majority of them is not just removable, but quickly removable. Therefore, if you have a threaded barrel you could switch it out for a non-threaded barrel in a snap and avoid the ban. However, if Democrats are interpreting the law, it could be that your pistol must be banned because it has the capability of accepting a threaded barrel.

These geniuses even include the word “silencer” (page 6, line 5) in regards to threaded barrels, something that doesn’t exist. The proper term is suppressor.

For “assault rifle”, it would ban any rifle with “A pistol grip that protrudes conspicuously beneath the action of the weapon;” a pretty broad ban. Fortunately, they also ban any rifle with a grenade launcher. Because this is very common, you know.

Magazines over 10 rounds would be banned.

As the NRA notes

The first bill prohibits all possession, purchase, sale or transfer of an “assault weapon” or LCM, except as permitted. (“Transfer” already has a special definition in Washington law, and means any “intended delivery of a firearm to another person without consideration of payment or promise of payment including, but not limited to, gifts and loans.”) The exceptions for other than law enforcement personnel or licensed dealers include persons who legally possess such items when the law takeseffect, and persons who become owners through inheritance or other operation of law, provided these owners can “establish such provenance.” Once grandfathered, owners are themselves prohibited from selling or transferring the item, other than to a licensed dealer or by way of permanent relinquishment to law enforcement. Guns and magazines relinquished to law enforcement “must be destroyed.”

The bill also imposes a storage requirement on grandfathered owners as a condition of continued lawful possession. The “assault weapon” or LCM must be kept in a safe, gun safe, lock box or other device that can be locked and constructed of workmanship and material such “that it cannot be pried open or easily removed or defeated.”

Penalties for non-compliance are heavy, and, surprise, aimed at law abiding citizens, rather than criminals in the streets.

These bills have less to do with “meaningful reforms” for public safety and reducing crime (other than the newly defined crimes of being gun owners) than they do with moving the incremental process of stigmatizing guns and eliminating firearm possession by law-abiding citizens another giant step forward in Washington State.

This is what the gun grabbers do.

Crossed at Pirate’s Cove. Follow me on Twitter @WilliamTeach.