Examiner – by Dave WorkmanA coalition of Washington firearms community leaders is today launching a grassroots campaign to counter the well-financed gun control initiative backed by a Seattle-based gun control group, while also preventing firearms confiscation “by any government agency…without due process.”
Protect Our Gun Rights (POGR) includes leaders from the 17,000-member Washington Arms Collectors (WAC), Gun Owners Action League of Washington (GOAL) and the Bellevue-based Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA). In an emergency meeting Monday evening in Renton, the WAC Board of Directors voted unanimously to support the effort with up to $200,000 and CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb also committed his organization to an equal amount. WAC will encourage member contributions to support this effort.
The POGR group also has an initiative to the legislature – I-591 – filed quietly more than a month ago. It is an exercise in simplicity compared to the 15-page measuresubmitted ten days ago by the well-heeled Washington Alliance for Gun Responsibility (WAGR). That campaign raised more than $1 million mostly with the support of wealthy Seattle venture capitalist Nick Hanauer, with a veiled threat from Mayors Against Illegal Guns that billionaire New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg will throw his considerable bankroll behind that campaign.
For the past several days, Northwest gun rights activists on several popular forums includingNorthwest Firearms, Seattle Guns, Shooters Northwest, Hunting-Washington WaGunsand Open Carry have been talking about a counter-effort, and now they have it.
It is estimated that the signature gathering effort to put POGR’s initiative in front of the legislature in January will cost between $500,000 and $1 million. WAC is allowing POGR to solicit contributions starting with this weekend’s gun show at the Puyallup fairgrounds. Also, contributions and requests for petitions may be sent to POGR at 12500 N.E. Tenth Place, Bellevue, WA 98005, or call (425) 454-4911.
WAC President John Rodabaugh, a practicing attorney and licensed firearms dealer, was matter-of-fact about facing a “rich man’s juggernaut” that already has amassed a small fortune.
“I don’t have a billion dollars,” he said, “but we’re going to do all that we can.”
It is the classic David v. Goliath political battle, pitting a relative handful of deep pocket anti-gun elitists against a grassroots army consisting largely of blue collar sportsmen, hobbyists, competitors and collectors –many of whom live paycheck-to-paycheck, but who will not surrender their privacy, or their gun rights, without a fight. Members of the WAC board did not commit to such an ambitious funding effort without considerable discussion, but Rodabaugh noted, “This is what we were elected for; to show some leadership when our organization is threatened.”
The WAGR gun control measure apparently poses a significant threat to WAC’s ability to conduct gun shows, a problem shared by other gun shows operated in various Southwest and Eastern Washington locations.
However, POGR’s I-591 would only add two brief new sections to state firearms statutes specifying that:
- “It is unlawful for any government agency to confiscate guns or other firearms from citizens without due process.”
- “It is unlawful for any government agency to require background checks on the recipient of a firearm unless a uniform national standard is required.”
Gottlieb told Examiner that the WAGR measure, Initiative 594, is “over reaching and over-complicated” while I-591 is straightforward. It would put to rest one of the greatest concerns of gun owners – especially those who migrated north from California, where gun registration and bans came incrementally and now background checks are even required for ammunition purchases– about registration and ultimately confiscation. And, it points to the need for a uniform national standard on background checks.
“The firearms community tried to work with the legislature earlier this year,” he recalled. “It’s almost like some people on the other side wanted that effort to fail, just so they could use their fat bank accounts to buy gun rights here in Washington.”
Another member of the WAC board observed that Washington “is the Alamo,” where gun owners are drawing a line in the sand and making a stand. National attention will be paid to the competing initiative campaigns in Washington, because if gun prohibitionists essentially buy an election here, they will do it elsewhere. Bloomberg is committed to spending millions of dollars on gun control efforts across the country in an attempt to shape gun laws to match his vision for America, which has also included telling people how much soda they can drink, what to do with their garbage and other “nanny state” edicts.
It could take some 350,000 signatures to put I-591 in front of state lawmakers, but Rodabaugh said this battle is necessary, and it begins with the distribution of petitions at the WAC gun show this weekend, where thousands of ready-made foot soldier activists will be streaming through the doors.
http://www.examiner.com/article/washington-groups-launch-fight-against-gun-control-initiative