By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
Embattled far-left Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson says she will announce “a comprehensive, focused gun violence prevention strategy” in response to the deadly Labor Day weekend shootings.
She didn’t offer even a hint, but recent past history with a string of Seattle mayors has invariably included some sort of gun control scheme, with a repeal of state preemption at the top of the agenda. Washington’s preemption law has been a model for many other states.
Since the mid-1980s when preemption was originally passed, followed by similar laws in Florida and a few other states at first, Seattle has disliked the statute. Prior to 1983, the Evergreen State was a checkerboard of local, and sometimes conflicting, ordinances. The state legislature adopted, then strengthened, the law.
SURVEY: WEAK LAWS RESPONSIBLE, NOT GUNS
What really infuriated Seattle was a unanimous 2012 ruling by the State Supreme Court in a case known as Winnie Chan v. City of Seattle, brought by the Second Amendment Foundation, National Rifle Association, Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, Washington Arms Collectors and five individuals. Under former Mayor Greg Nickels, the city adopted a gun ban in park facilities, in clear violation of the statute. By the time the state high court took the case, Seattle’s mayor was Mike McGinn. Both Nickels and McGinn were liberal gun control proponents.
The city lost at trial, and unanimously at the Court of Appeals. The city then took the case to the Supreme Court, and under then Chief-Justice Barbara Madsen hammered down unanimously upholding—and putting the teeth of court precedent into—the statute. Here’s what the model statute says:
“The state of Washington hereby fully occupies and preempts the entire field of firearms regulation within the boundaries of the state, including the registration, licensing, possession, purchase, sale, acquisition, transfer, discharge, and transportation of firearms, or any other element relating to firearms or parts thereof, including ammunition and reloader components. Cities, towns, and counties or other municipalities may enact only those laws and ordinances relating to firearms that are specifically authorized by state law, as in RCW 9.41.300, and are consistent with this chapter. Such local ordinances shall have the same penalty as provided for by state law. Local laws and ordinances that are inconsistent with, more restrictive than, or exceed the requirements of state law shall not be enacted and are preempted and repealed, regardless of the nature of the code, charter, or home rule status of such city, town, county, or municipality.”
According to Seattle’s KIRO, the local CBS affiliate, the City Council’s Public Safety Committee “voted Tuesday to advance a new gun violence reduction strategy.” The plan now goes to the full council. It calls for a two-year, $418,000 partnership with the National Network for Safe Communities, KIRO said.
Wilson’s proposal will probably be different.
