Washington: Anti-Gun Legislation Could be Heard on the Floor Next Week

As early as next week, the Washington House of Representatives could hear and vote on House Bill 1122 and House Bill 1483.  It is important that you please contact your state Representative and urge them to OPPOSE House Bill 1122 and House Bill 1483.

The Substitute for House Bill 1122 would require Washington gun owners to lock up all of their firearms or potentially face reckless endangerment charges.  Further, under this bill the penalty for a reckless endangerment charge involving a gun storage violation would be a Class C Felony.  This intrusive government legislation invades people’s homes and forces them to render their firearms useless in a self-defense situation by locking them up.  House Bill 1122 is a solution in search of a problem.

Sponsored by state Representative Tana Senn, HB 1483 would allow for the destruction of all firearms confiscated by or forfeited to the Washington State Patrol.  Like other seized items, these firearms should be sold by law-enforcement to generate revenue instead of spending money to have them destroyed.

Again, please contact your state Representative and urge them to OPPOSE House Bill 1122 and House Bill 1483 when they come up for a vote.

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Yesterday, the Washington Senate passed a substituted version of Senate Bill 5552, which seeks to address some of the problems created by the overwhelmingly flawed I-594 law. SB 5552 would do the following:

• Expands definition of immediate family to include parents-in-law and siblings-in-law
• Expands transfers between family members to include loans
• Provides exemption for temporary transfers where the transferee and firearm remain in the presence of transferor
• Clarifies transfers may occur between an entity and its employee or agent for lawful purposes in the ordinary course of business
• Provides exemption for transfers for the purpose of preventing suicide
• Clarifies that the term “firearm” does not include flare guns and construction tools
• Provides an exemption for licensed collectors when the firearm is a curio or relic

Also yesterday, the Senate passed Senate Bill 5268, legislation that would require the department of licensing to notify an individual who holds a Washington Concealed Pistol License that their license is about to expire.  This notification would be sent by email, if the licensee provided their email, and would be sent out within sixty days prior to the expiration of the license.

Your NRA-ILA will continue to keep you updated when more information is available.