Gun control advocates are a menace to constitutional liberty.
They do not concern themselves in the least with what is constitutional or not.
They care only for what they can get away with seizing from you.
Initiative 1639 defines all semi-automatic rifles, regardless of type or caliber, as “semiautomatic assault rifles” (not just AR-15s and AK-47s).
Semiautomatic rifles are common guns widely in use throughout the last century.
They are among the “arms” which the individual citizens of Washington have an “unimpaired” right to bear under their state constitution.
But under I-1639, you may not obtain any semiautomatic rifle of any kind until you are 21 years old, wait 10 days after your purchase, pass enhanced background checks not required for other rifles, pay a $25 fee and you have taken “recognized firearm safety training” of unspecified cost and duration within the past give years.
As a practical matter, these measures are meaningless.
Mass shootings are not due to immaturity or inadequate training.
They typically involve someone mentally ill or homicidally determined enough to circumvent any lawful restrictions.
As a matter of principle, if I-1639 passes, it will establish the precedent that your constitutional rights may be postponed until any arbitrary age, subject to arbitrary waiting periods, arbitrary fees and arbitrary training standards.
Would you tolerate these impairments if they pertained to any other constitutional right?
If the answer is no, and you take all your rights seriously, then defend them and reject I-1639.
Michael A. Higbee,
Port Angeles