Chief Deputy Bruce Kimsey, left, Sheriff Robert Snaza and Lewis County Jail Chief Chris Sweet talk with the Lewis County Board of Commissioners in October, 2019.
Special Services Chief Dusty Breen of the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office recently weighed in on the financial strain that the recently adopted Initiative 1639 is taking on his department and speculated that changes may be on the horizon in terms of administering enhanced background checks for gun purchases.
Breen explained that the Sheriff’s Office is currently doing “more than we had before” at a Tuesday conference with the Lewis County Board of Commissioners in relation to newly implemented provisions on July 1, 2019.
The initiative states that in the event of an individual purchasing a semiautomatic assault rifle, the local sheriff or chief of police must perform an enhanced background check to determine if the buyer is legally eligible to possess a firearm.
“The year’s over (and) we’ve had 600 more firearms transfer background checks — 600 more than in the past. Our total was over 2,700,” Breen said. “Just conservatively estimating what a standard background check costs … just if we assume the base level, it works out to the cost of the county for conducting those background checks is about $36,719.20 for the year.”
Breen said the task is a “massive undertaking.”
“However, the good news is one of the things that they’re looking at down the road is a single-point background check system in Washington state, which would hopefully relieve local law enforcement from that responsibility,” Breen said. “So, we continue to get these unfunded mandates. They’re costing us a lot of money, but hopefully there’s some sunshine on the horizon that it may turn around and become a state function in the future.”
House Bill 1949, passed into law last year, funds a feasibility study on a “single point of contact” firearm background check system, and $1 million has been allocated to the University of Washington to conduct those studies.
The study is also intended to make recommendations about how a single point of contact background check system would be established given the fact the FBI has decided to discontinue its courtesy National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS).
