Many also forget that these "gun stores" like Outdoor Emporium are giant revenue earners for the city of Seattle and a majority of their sales are not even firearm related. In fact, Outdoor Emporium sells many more items then guns, such as camping and fishing equipment, clothing , etc. This is a lot of revenue the city of Seattle will kiss goodbye, along with all the jobs and the $15/min wages the city so unscrupulously enforced in the city. In fact, considering the city of Seattle has made it so hard on smaller businesses to function in the city, they should have been kneeling down and kissing the behinds of a large retailer like this. Seattle already lacks good outdoors type stores compared to the cities around it. How many people will travel all the way to Olympia or to Marysville to good to a large outdoor retailer like Cabelas, since a large city like Seattle, will not allow such deviance in their city?
As much as I hate this law and how it could lead to a total gun ban in the city, as they will make guns impossible to afford, I do think its great to not give the city of Seattle any more money than you have to.. I'm sure Burien, Sea-Tac, Bellevue, Kirkland, Lynnwood, Mountlake Terrace, etc would be honored to gain these retailers. Seattle is also a very condensed and compact city, which means travelling out of the city to surrounding cities is not so challenging.
The problem is you have a very radical, left-wing fascist city government in a very socially libertarian/conservative state. King County is pretty liberal too, but Seattle is in a league of its own. The city is both utterly fascist/socialist and extremely hostile to businesses, yet is tempered by the state government. If it was not for the state government of Washington, being so pro-business and capitalist, e.g. no state taxes, etc, Seattle would probably have deteriorated into another Detroit by now. It would have been the Detroit of the Pacific with the type of insane government running the city. Seattle wrongly claims it helps save Washington state, whereas in reality, Washington state has given birth to a very successful business environment. Seattle's prime location and long standing corporate and blue collar industries that were remnants of the mindset of the old Seattle are the only reason the city can still be successful and desirable.
I for see in the next 50 years, that Bellevue will eventually overshadow Seattle as the major city center of the region, as the city has much less regulation and a much more business minded and more libertarian leaning city government compared to Seattle. Ironically, Bellevue, despite being a fraction the size of Seattle has more gun stores than the city of Seattle. With the Microsoft money going heavily into Bellevue and the giant campus in Redmond, I see Bellevue becoming its very own cosmopolitan center, which it is beginning to have. Seattle may be the place were grungy hipsters hang out and party, but Bellevue and the Eastside will become the town where businesses flourish without the draconian regulations the fascist city-state of Seattle will impose. Many reputable IT startups and of course Fortune 500 are being operated on the Eastside now. Google has decided to make Kirkland its home in the Pacific Northwest. If the insanity in California keeps spiraling out of control, it would not surprise me if one day the mega corp Google moves its main operations to Kirkland, WA. THINK.. Cheaper rent, no state tax, less regulations, etc, This would result in a huge demographic shift for the Eastside, as Seattle's unmanageable road system forces everyone to live on the Eastside to be near their jobs.
As much as I hate to say it, I would like the city of Seattle to become a ghost town inhabited by coyotes and vultures. I'd love the city to just turn into a heap of rubble. I express my condolences to the good that once existed in Seattle. Washington will become the best place to live in the country if we could just remove this wretched city from the state.