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Washington: Fallout Continues From Proposed ‘Assault Weapon’ Ban
Gun rights activists are continuing to dissect and analyze remarks made by State Sen. Adam Kline, Bellevue Police Chief Linda Pillo and Ralph Fascitelli, president of Washington Ceasefire during Tuesday’s sometimes rambunctious hearing on SB 6396, which would ban so-called “military style semiautomatic assault weapons.”
It would not actually ban the firearms – current owners would be grandfathered in, but future sales would be prohibited – but it would be the proverbial “reasonable first step” toward eliminating these guns. In Kline’s own words, “My purpose for bringing this bill is to remove from commerce, eventually, over the course of years, the most lethal weapons that we have legally to this day.
We’ve already banned at the federal level machine guns. This is a reasonable extension from that ban; semiautomatics that meet certain physical characteristics.”
According to Joe Waldron, legislative director for the Bellevue-based Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, “The individual sign-in sheets (showed) 313 people signed in to testify.
Fourteen indicated they supported the bill and 298 checked the ‘con’ column, and one person left both blank.”
Yet Sen. Kline, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee and is prime sponsor of the legislation, equally divided testimony between pro and con.
Some gun rights proponents contend this gave unfair advantage and “weight” to those supporting a ban. Others were amused and/or offended by Kline’s contention that certain physical characteristics of a so-called “assault weapon” make it “more lethal than your ordinary deer rifle.” Read more
Source: Seattle Gun Rights Examiner
