Politics I Want the Rest of the World To Know What Didn’t Happen in Olympia
posted by on April 16 at 13:53 PM
There was an article in yesterday’s NYT about gun control legislation at the state level.
State lawmakers across the country are ramping up efforts to pass new restrictions on guns, following nearly a decade in which state legislative efforts have been dominated by gun advocates.Much of the proposed legislation —some 38 states are considering gun-related bills — focuses on cutting off gun access to convicted criminals and the mentally ill and on improving methods to trace guns used in crimes.
…many legislatures are trying to close loopholes that have allowed those with a history of mental illness to obtain guns.
More than a dozen states have signed or are debating bills that would compel states to upload mental health records to the National Instant Check System. West Virginia’s governor recently signed into a law a measure requiring his state to upload disqualifying records to the system.
The article comes with a handy map that shows which state legislatures “are considering” (present tense) this sort of legislation.
As you can see, Washington State is highlighted as a state that is currently considering legislation that would close a loophole allowing those with a history of mental illness to obtain guns.
Correction time. Despite having a Democratic governor and stunning Democratic majorities in both houses of the legislature, Washington State’s bill to close the loophole that allows those who have been involuntarily committed because of mental illness to get guns—co-sponsored by Reps. Jamie Pedersen (D-43, Capitol Hill) and Roger Goodman (D-45, Kirkland)—was murdered by House leadership. The bill made it out of two committees, but Speaker Chopp sent it back to the rules committee, where it died.
So, for those across the land who were reading the NYT yesterday and nodded knowingly when you saw that blue blue Washington state was queued up for gun control, please be aware that we’re not “considering” a thing. That legislation died on February 19, 2008.
Similar bills passed in Arkansas and West Virginia.
That is my word.
Interesting to see the gun "restriction" bills in Texas (and lack of "advocacy" bills). Wonder if it has something to do with all the guns there?
Arkansas and West Virginia passed these bills because these bills are conservative nonsense. People who are committed for 14 days -- people who are, by definition, temporarily affected by a trauma or a personal crisis -- are no more likely to be violent than the average person.
Male journalists, however, are more likely to commit gun violence than the average person. It makes much more sense in every way to ban male journalists from owning guns forever than rape victims, molestation victims, etc. Start pushing that bill to close the "Josh Feit Loophole," please.
Chopp must go, for countless reasons.
Gun control mistakes the proximate cause for gun violence with the ultimate cause, which is usually some form of mental illness or social pathology (usually including some combination of alienation, paranoia, vigilantism, bigotry, and poverty).
Legislation to limit access to guns does nothing to deal with mental illness or social pathology, and it alienates a lot of decent people whose experiences with guns comes from a proud family or cultural tradition going back generations. If we want to stop this kind of thing, we need to work at fixing the underlying mental illness and social pathology. Even keeping guns away from certain classes of the mentally ill doesn't really have much of an effect. What we really need is a supportive way of dealing with mental illness that provides help for everyone and considers the public health implications of potential gun violence on par with the individual rights of likely gun violence perpetrators.
Josh you are such an idiot. I have no idea how you ever got a job covering politics. You may understand POLICY, but you don't understand POLITICS. The fact is that current leadership went from being in a minority to being in a super majority by a POLITICAL strategy. would you rather have a budget that reflects Democratic principles or republican principles? Is millions in cuts for teacher colas, low income housing, and low income job creation worth passing a few liberal policy bills? f*ck no.
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