Drizzt
Member
Without groundswell either way, gun bills placed on hold
JOHN DEWEESE; The News Tribune
The House Judiciary Committee has declared a cease-fire on gun-related bills this session.
Despite the controversy surrounding Tacoma's connection to last year's Washington, D.C.-area sniper shootings as well as the deaths of two Pierce County boys from playing with guns, committee Chairwoman Pat Lantz (D-Gig Harbor) said this isn't the time for lawmakers to get into heated debate over gun regulation.
"Why fight a battle that cannot be won by either side?" Lantz said.
House Speaker Frank Chopp (D-Seattle) said there's no consensus to pass gun-related bills.
The situation in the Senate Judiciary Committee is similar. Chairman Bob McCaslin (R-Spokane Valley), echoing Lantz's comments, said lawmakers have spent the past three years debating whether to require background checks at gun shows and whether parents should face criminal charges for leaving a loaded gun within a child's reach.
"We've had some of those bills before and I wouldn't hear them," McCaslin said. "How are you going to legislate against people not using their heads around guns?"
Rep. Jeannie Darnielle (D-Tacoma) and Sen. Debbie Regala (D-Tacoma) hoped to pass a law requiring gun stores to install antitheft devices. Regala drafted the bill after the Bull's Eye Shooter Supply store in Tacoma came under federal scrutiny because it couldn't account for the .223 Bushmaster rifle allegedly used by sniper suspects Lee Boyd Malvo and John Allen Muhammad. The store owner later reported the rifle was stolen.
Darnielle said she was surprised the bill didn't even get a public hearing.
"When the decision was made no gun control bills would be heard this session, there wasn't much room for even a timely bill," Darnielle said.
Laura Lockard, executive director of the gun safety group Washington CeaseFire, also expected legislators to reach some compromise after the sniper killings.
She also hoped the stalled Whitney Graves bill, which holds parents responsible for locking up guns, might at least have received a hearing after last year's gun-related deaths of a 12-year-old Tacoma boy and a 14-year-old Spanaway boy. The legislation, named for a Marysville girl accidentally killed by a friend in 1996, also would require that guns be sold with safety devices, such as trigger locks.
"Maybe it's not the right time to go out on a limb for some of these bills," Lockard said.
Gun-show dealers have repeatedly tried to reach a compromise with gun-control advocates, said Joe Waldron, president of the gun-rights group Washington Arms Collectors. All dealers in his organization undergo background checks, but forcing them to follow the same requirements as gun stores could add as much as $50 per transaction. That puts too steep a price on small-time collectors, he said.
Only two gun-related bills are advancing through the Republican-led Senate. Sen. Val Stevens (R-Arlington) sponsored Senate Bill 5083, allowing people with concealed weapons permits in other states to legally carry handguns in Washington. And Sen. Pam Roach (R-Sumner) sponsored Senate Bill 5910, exempting firing ranges from civil liability for noise pollution.
The concealed weapons measure passed the Senate with unanimous support. Sen. Adam Kline (D-Seattle) pushed through an amendment stating that Washington not accept concealed weapons permits from states that grant permits without a background check or allow people younger than 21-years-old to get a permit.
"We do a background check and if we have reciprocity with other states they should do the same," he said.
Discussions over the gun-range measure, which was approved by the Judiciary Committee and awaits a vote by the full Senate, are more controversial.
Roach said the bill affects firing ranges that were built decades ago in what were rural areas. Now that communities are growing around many ranges, Roach wants to protect them from being sued under noise ordinance laws.
This bill could affect the 54-year-old Gig Harbor Sportsman's Club, which has come under criticism from the nearby community of Avalon Woods. Club president Doug Pensler said nearby residents signed agreements not to sue the range over the noise. But he wants legal protection since the Gig Harbor City Council just changed its noise ordinance.
Kline said he's concerned because the bill only requires that ranges comply with regulations that were in place when they were built. That takes control away from local city councils, he said.
"What they're asking for is no regulation, and that's too much to ask," Kline said. "It's probably not going to pass the House in that form."
A Senate proposal that's not going anywhere is Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles' bill that would create a statewide ballistics imaging database. Also known as "gun fingerprinting," manufacturers would ship guns to dealers with a spent cartridge and bullet in a sealed container. After the gun is sold, the dealer would send the container to the Washington State Patrol, where the markings on the bullet and casing would be entered into a state database.
Kohl-Welles withdrew the bill and offered a resolution urging Congress to create a national database. The measure has not come up for a vote.
Waldron opposes the idea. He said a database would be expensive, and the markings a gun leaves on bullets can change from frequent use or be deliberately altered.
http://www.tribnet.com/news/government/story/2747047p-2795336c.html
JOHN DEWEESE; The News Tribune
The House Judiciary Committee has declared a cease-fire on gun-related bills this session.
Despite the controversy surrounding Tacoma's connection to last year's Washington, D.C.-area sniper shootings as well as the deaths of two Pierce County boys from playing with guns, committee Chairwoman Pat Lantz (D-Gig Harbor) said this isn't the time for lawmakers to get into heated debate over gun regulation.
"Why fight a battle that cannot be won by either side?" Lantz said.
House Speaker Frank Chopp (D-Seattle) said there's no consensus to pass gun-related bills.
The situation in the Senate Judiciary Committee is similar. Chairman Bob McCaslin (R-Spokane Valley), echoing Lantz's comments, said lawmakers have spent the past three years debating whether to require background checks at gun shows and whether parents should face criminal charges for leaving a loaded gun within a child's reach.
"We've had some of those bills before and I wouldn't hear them," McCaslin said. "How are you going to legislate against people not using their heads around guns?"
Rep. Jeannie Darnielle (D-Tacoma) and Sen. Debbie Regala (D-Tacoma) hoped to pass a law requiring gun stores to install antitheft devices. Regala drafted the bill after the Bull's Eye Shooter Supply store in Tacoma came under federal scrutiny because it couldn't account for the .223 Bushmaster rifle allegedly used by sniper suspects Lee Boyd Malvo and John Allen Muhammad. The store owner later reported the rifle was stolen.
Darnielle said she was surprised the bill didn't even get a public hearing.
"When the decision was made no gun control bills would be heard this session, there wasn't much room for even a timely bill," Darnielle said.
Laura Lockard, executive director of the gun safety group Washington CeaseFire, also expected legislators to reach some compromise after the sniper killings.
She also hoped the stalled Whitney Graves bill, which holds parents responsible for locking up guns, might at least have received a hearing after last year's gun-related deaths of a 12-year-old Tacoma boy and a 14-year-old Spanaway boy. The legislation, named for a Marysville girl accidentally killed by a friend in 1996, also would require that guns be sold with safety devices, such as trigger locks.
"Maybe it's not the right time to go out on a limb for some of these bills," Lockard said.
Gun-show dealers have repeatedly tried to reach a compromise with gun-control advocates, said Joe Waldron, president of the gun-rights group Washington Arms Collectors. All dealers in his organization undergo background checks, but forcing them to follow the same requirements as gun stores could add as much as $50 per transaction. That puts too steep a price on small-time collectors, he said.
Only two gun-related bills are advancing through the Republican-led Senate. Sen. Val Stevens (R-Arlington) sponsored Senate Bill 5083, allowing people with concealed weapons permits in other states to legally carry handguns in Washington. And Sen. Pam Roach (R-Sumner) sponsored Senate Bill 5910, exempting firing ranges from civil liability for noise pollution.
The concealed weapons measure passed the Senate with unanimous support. Sen. Adam Kline (D-Seattle) pushed through an amendment stating that Washington not accept concealed weapons permits from states that grant permits without a background check or allow people younger than 21-years-old to get a permit.
"We do a background check and if we have reciprocity with other states they should do the same," he said.
Discussions over the gun-range measure, which was approved by the Judiciary Committee and awaits a vote by the full Senate, are more controversial.
Roach said the bill affects firing ranges that were built decades ago in what were rural areas. Now that communities are growing around many ranges, Roach wants to protect them from being sued under noise ordinance laws.
This bill could affect the 54-year-old Gig Harbor Sportsman's Club, which has come under criticism from the nearby community of Avalon Woods. Club president Doug Pensler said nearby residents signed agreements not to sue the range over the noise. But he wants legal protection since the Gig Harbor City Council just changed its noise ordinance.
Kline said he's concerned because the bill only requires that ranges comply with regulations that were in place when they were built. That takes control away from local city councils, he said.
"What they're asking for is no regulation, and that's too much to ask," Kline said. "It's probably not going to pass the House in that form."
A Senate proposal that's not going anywhere is Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles' bill that would create a statewide ballistics imaging database. Also known as "gun fingerprinting," manufacturers would ship guns to dealers with a spent cartridge and bullet in a sealed container. After the gun is sold, the dealer would send the container to the Washington State Patrol, where the markings on the bullet and casing would be entered into a state database.
Kohl-Welles withdrew the bill and offered a resolution urging Congress to create a national database. The measure has not come up for a vote.
Waldron opposes the idea. He said a database would be expensive, and the markings a gun leaves on bullets can change from frequent use or be deliberately altered.
http://www.tribnet.com/news/government/story/2747047p-2795336c.html