Washington voters Tuesday did what Congress couldn't do: pass the kind of gun legislation that the vast majority of Americans nationwide have said they support. The new law doesn't ban assault-style rifles or limit the capacity of ammunition magazines. Nor does it tighten restrictions on the state's concealed carry regulations. Instead, the state's voters, by a 3-2 margin passed Initiative 594, which requires that criminal background checks will now be required for all gun sales and transfers, including those a gun shows and on the Internet. They also shot down an alternative initiative that would have blocked any state-imposed background law from going farther than the federal law.
The campaign was led by Everytown for Gun Safety. Michele Richinick reports:
Federal law requires licensed firearms dealers to perform background checks on prospective purchasers and to maintain records of the sales. But unlicensed private sellers—online and at gun shows, for example—are not required to observe the same policies. And about 40% of firearms sold in the country are transferred by such private sellers, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
As we know all too well, the gun lobbyists—the National Rifle Association and even more extremist groups—
crushed congressional efforts to pass expanded background checks nationwide in 2013, something that 80-92 percent of Americans have said they favor in various polls,
including one in July.
With the addition of Washington, seven states now require background checks for most or all private sales: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Oregon and New York. Illinois and Rhode Island require background checks for buyers of firearms at gun shows.
Washington offers a path forward for other states to impose what Congress could not:
The way to move Washington, [said Everytown president John] Feinblatt, is to transfer an issue to the state level. He compared such a move to the success of gay rights as judges in multiple states continue to strike decades-old bans on same-sex marriage.
“We plan to keep building on this exciting momentum, taking this issue directly to voters in more states and showing the gun lobby ‘lap dogs’ in statehouses and Congress exactly where the American people stand,” said Dan Gross, president of the Brady Campaign.
It will take money and the same persistence and stamina displayed by the NRA to spread background checks, but Washington has shown it can be done.