By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
The fatal mass shooting at the Seattle Center during that city’s “Bite of Seattle” celebration last month could launch a new push to reform Washington state’s juvenile gun control laws, making young offenders more accountable for their crimes.
Seattle’s KIRO—the local CBS affiliate—is reporting that State Rep. David Hackney (D-11th District) wants to tighten up gun laws relating to juveniles. The suspect taken into custody following the shooting, which left three dead, was only 15 years old. He was allegedly armed with a so-called “ghost gun,” a 9mm semiautomatic fitted with a “large-capacity” magazine, which is prohibited in the state.
Under current law, a juvenile offender typically cycles through the system five times before ever being charged with a crime. Quoted by KIRO, Hackney stated, “In order to get into the criminal justice system for the charge of juvenile in possession of a firearm, you have to have four prior charges. The first four times it’s what they call diversion, not criminal justice.”
Another alleged gunman involved in the shooting, identified as 19-year-old Junior Cee Niko Semo, was killed in what appears to have been an exchange of gunfire between rival gang members. Police recovered three guns, two of which were used in the shooting, but there are reports a fourth gun was involved because investigators recovered spent cartridge casings in two different calibers, while the recovered guns are all 9mm pistols.
The dead alleged shooter had been previously charged with a firearm violation. Hackney said “nothing happened” as a result of that charge. The dead juvenile allegedly “went back home (and) picked up another gun.”
KUOW, the local NPR station, confirms that the gun allegedly carried by the 15-year-old is a Polymer 80, a so-called “ghost gun” because it does not have a serial number.
Fatally wounded in the shooting were 44-year-old Carlos Israel Sanchez Villalba and 56-year-old Ashley Whitehead. They were bystanders evidently caught in the crossfire.
According to KIRO, lawmaker Hackney had earlier tried to “lower the threshold” for juveniles to be charged with gun-related crimes, and now he wants to get tougher with a “two strikes” approach.
“What I really wanted was two times,” Hackney reportedly stated. “After your second time, if you’re still running around with a gun, we’ve got a problem that needs to be addressed. So, I’m going to reduce it from three to two, and I’m going to drop the bill again, and I’m going to use the attention that I’ve gotten this year to show my colleagues that people really care about this.”
