On January 1st, 2019, Washington State will be rolling out some of the toughest gun laws in the United States. If you want to buy a semi automatic rifle in Washington next year, you'll have to be 21 years of age, instead of 18. You'll have to store that puppy safely, too: According to the Seattle Times, in some circumstances, gun owners will be criminally liable if an unauthorized individual uses their boom-stick to commit a crime. It's a move that should make everyone in the state feel just a little bit safer, what with all of the gun violence of late.
Provided the cops are willing to enforce the new laws.
From The Root:
Republic, Washington, Police Chief Loren Culp, whose name makes him sound like a placeholder villain in a crime procedural, has announced that his police force, comprising all of him and his deputy, will not enforce the law when it goes into effect in January 2019.
Culp has proposed an ordinance to his city council—supposedly based on the Second Amendment—essentially saying that gun regulation laws like Initiative 1639, the one in question, infringe on citizens' constitutional right to bear arms and through the ordinance would be "hereby declared to be invalid in the City of Republic," per the Times.
In an interview with the Seattle Times, Culp made it clear that he thinks that having to be accountable for your firearm by reporting it stolen within five days of the theft is unreasonable bullshit. Making sure that folks under 21 years of age aren't allowed to bop around with a semi-automatic weapon? This too is bullshit. He's not down with that!
Of course, Culp has a chorus of tooled up tools egging him on.
From The Seattle Times:
Republic is in Ferry County, which voted 73 percent against the initiative, almost an exact flip from King County, which went 76 percent for the initiative.
As of Sunday afternoon, on the official "Republic Police WA" Facebook page, that Nov. 9 announcement by the chief had gotten 797 thumbs up, 292 hearts and only three sour faces.
Does anyone know what's supposed to happen when an officer of the law refuses to enforce the law of the land? I'm curious how this one is going to play out.
Image of Colt AR-15 Sporter SP1 Carbine above by Chris Browning (GunNewsDaily) – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link
