I have read my voters’ pamphlet, and I am convinced that Initiative 594 is the way to go. The current law requires background checks if someone buys a gun from a firearms store; the law would extend the background check to individual gun sales. So, if someone wanted to sell a gun to some stranger on the Internet, they would have to require a background check first.
The initiative includes common-sense exemptions. For instance, no background check would be required if you gave a gun as a gift to a family member, or if you loaned a gun to a family member for hunting or target shooting. Law enforcement officers and members of the military would, of course, also be exempt from background checks.
A recent letter writer claimed that not even the military or law enforcement would be exempt. Wrong. He also said that if a grandfather handed a gun to his grandson to try at a shooting range, he would be committing a felony. Also wrong. I wonder if the letter writer actually ever read the law or the voters’ pamphlet.
Get the facts. Read the law. Then decide.
Judy Ronningen, Bellevue