Two gun initiatives on general election ballot

Two gun initiatives are on the November ballot. Both claim to protect individual rights for gun owners.

Initiative 591, according to the Washington Voters’ Pamphlet, “protects against illegal search and seizure, preventing politicians and bureaucrats driven by an anti-rights agenda from depriving citizens of their property without due process.”

The statement in the pamphlet also emphasizes that I-591 protects background check uniformity.

The argument against this initiative states it will “make it easier for guns to fall into the wrong hands by weakening the criminal background check system on gun sales.” The argument also claims that I-591 would roll back Washington’s existing background check laws to conform to weak federal standards and locks in loopholes that allow criminal, domestic abusers and other dangerous individuals to buy guns without criminal background checks.

Both state and federal laws require that certain sellers of firearms conduct background checks of buyers before selling firearms to determine whether the buyer can legally possess a firearm. Washington law makes it illegal for convicted felons to possess firearms.

According to the state voters’ pamphlet, Initiative 594 would apply the background check requirements currently used for firearm sales by licensed dealers to all firearm sales and transfers where at least one person is in Washington.

Background checks would be required not only for sales and transfers of firearms through firearms dealers, but also at gun shows, online and between unlicensed private individuals. Background checks would be required for any sale or transfer of a firearm, whether for money or as a gift or loan, with specific exceptions, and would be required whether the firearm involved is a pistol or another type of gun. Violations of these requirements would be crimes. A background check would not be required to transfer a gun by gift between family members.

The argument for the initiative explains that the initiative applies the existing background check system to all gun sales. The argument against the initiative states that because it regulates transfers which is defined broadly that virtually every time a gun changes hands it is “subject to bureaucracy, fees, taxes and registration.”