By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
Majority Democrats in the Washington state House of Representatives have passed a bill, and sent it to the state Senate, which will allow the State Patrol to raise background check fees charged to anyone buying a firearm, eliminating the $18 ceiling currently in place.
The legislation is House Bill 2521, which has been referred to the Senate Ways & Means committee.
But they didn’t do it before Rep. Jim Walsh (R-19th District), who chairs the State Republican party, delivered a spirited lecture on constitutional rights; remarks which anti-gun-rights Democrats seemed to ultimately ignore.
The Washington State Patrol has been responsible for conducting firearm background checks for the past few years. Previously, background checks had been conducted through the federal National Instant Check System (NICS). HB 2521 would allow WSP to raise fees s necessary to cover its costs.
Walsh had proposed an amendment, which was predictably rejected by Democrats, which would have removed the background check fee entirely. His argument was straightforward: “This fee, this tax, to exercise a constitutionally protected right is unconstitutional.”
His remarks are already getting praise on social media.
Since Democrats have taken hard control of the Washington Legislature, they have been pushing the agenda put forth by the Seattle-based Alliance for Gun Responsibility, a billionaire-backed gun prohibition lobbying group. Walsh has been leading GOP opposition to the various gun control schemes, including bans on so-called “assault weapons” and “large-capacity magazines.” The U.S. Supreme Court has been “kicking the can down the road” on a federal challenge to the magazine ban in a case known as Gator’s Custom Guns v. Washington. Other state gun laws are also being challenged.
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Walsh’s remarks could be considered “required reading” for lawmakers in any state where fees are charged for the exercise of a constitutional right.
“There is no amount of money that can be reasonable or justified to be charged to a citizen to exercise a constitutionally protected right,” Walsh told his colleagues during a floor debate Monday. “There is no fee that is appropriate to be charged an individual to exercise a constitutionally protected right.”
Walsh, who recited the language of Article 1, Section 24 of the state constitution, which says the right of the individual citizen to bear arms in defense of himself or the state shall not be impaired, said the background check fee could be considered an impairment.
“Constitutional rights cannot be taken by the government and sold back in pieces to individual citizens,” he admonished.
He called HB 2521 a “really, really bad bill.”
Later, in ramping up his opposition to the measure, Walsh explained, “By impairing that right, we are not only restricting your ability to defend yourself, but the part that isn’t stated, the negative space in this unconstitutional proposal, is that a criminal isn’t going to pay the fee for this background check to start with. The criminal is going to acquire a gun—buy, steal, get a gun—in an illegal way that obviously doesn’t involve paying an escalating fee to acquire the firearm.
“We need to focus on preventing the criminals from getting guns,” Walsh stressed, “or punishing them appropriately when the use a gun in committing a crime and we need to stop impairing your ability as a law abiding citizen to exercise your constitutional right to protect yourself, and your home, and your kids or grandkids and your neighbors and the whole state.”
