On January 22 Washington state lawmakers held a hearing on a proposal to requirement gun owners in the state to lock up their guns in the home.
This comes just under two weeks after state representative Jim Moeller (D-49th) introduced legislation to ban the possession of the “assault weapons” in the state.
According to The News Tribune, Rep. Ruth Kagi (D-Lake Forest Park) spoke for requiring law-abiding citizens to lock up their guns in their homes. Kagi said, “Requiring gun owners to safely store firearms is common sense.” She added, “About 1 million households in Washington state contain unsafe firearms, and the children in those homes are at risk.”
But Raymond Carter–who is with the Citizens Committee for the Right to Bear Firearms–said the law is simply another layer of bureaucracy on gun rights and one that is actually already in place via “the state’s reckless-endangerment law.”
In addition to gun storage and an “assault weapons” ban, lawmakers also heard arguments for implementing California-style gun confiscation laws via “Extreme-Risk Protection Orders” (ERPOs). The ERPOs would work like California’s Gun Violence Protection Orders, which allow a judge to issue an order for the confiscation of firearms from an individual after family members express concern about a person’s behavior or state of mind.
There is no word on whether not storing your guns in a state-approved manner will result in having those guns confiscated via an ERPO.
Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.