WASHINGTON STATE

Washington State House Democrats

HOUSE DEMOCRATS

Effective, logical House-passed gun bills now before state Senate

Although overshadowed by the dramatic struggle over an ambitious proposal to require background checks for all private gun sales, three bills that tighten firearms regulation and can save lives passed the House last week with strong bipartisan support, and are now in the Senate’s court.OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Rep. Steve Kirby  of Tacoma, who was among those committed to voting for an amended background-checks bill as part of the ultimately unsuccessful effort by the Democratic majority to find a path to House approval, said today that the three bills the House did pass deserve more media attention, as well as approval by the Senate.

“It concerns me that these bills have gotten lost in the discussion of the one bill that didn’t pass,” Kirby said. “These bills are very significant, and they will undoubtedly save lives. They all got votes from a least 10 Republicans in the House, and one of them passed unanimously.

“I can’t think of a reason why the Legislature shouldn’t send these bills to the governor.”

The measures are:

House Bill 1840, by Rep. Roger Goodman of Kirkland, which prohibits possession of a gun by anyone subject to certain restraining orders, no-contact orders and protection orders, including sexual-assault orders. Those under such orders who already have guns would be required to surrender them to police. The bill passed the House 61-37.

House Bill 1383, also by Goodman, which increases protection of people victimized by stalkers by broadening the definition of felony stalking and creating a civil stalking-protection order (and potentially, those who are under such an order would be subject to the provisions of HB 1840, above). It passed 98-0.

House Bill 1612, by Rep. Mike Hope, R-Lake Stevens, which sets up a statewide data base to log felony firearms offenders. The data base is designed to aid law-enforcement officers and would not be available for public viewing. It was approved 85-10.

The measures strike a particularly responsive chord with Kirby because of the 2010 shooting death in Tacoma of schoolteacher Jennifer Paulson by a man who was under court order not to go near her. Paulson was killed outside Birney Elementary School, which was in Kirby’s district. Had this year’s House-passed bills been in effect at that time, they might have prevented the shooting.

Kirby voted against the original background-checks bill in committee because he wasn’t convinced it could attract the bipartisan support needed to pass the Legislature. That bill faced tough sledding before the full House, where it was unlikely to get more than one Republican vote. Kirby participated in efforts to salvage the bill, possibly by accepting some combination of amendments. Those efforts fell short, and the bill did not make it to the full House for a vote there.

The Senate is controlled by a Republican-dominated coalition, and prospects there for a background-checks bill were dim. The three bills that passed on bipartisan votes in the House are different, Kirby said.

“These bills are sensible and reasonable,” he said. “They’re readily enforceable, and they help victims of domestic violence and sexual assault and other people in our state who need protection from violent criminals.”