Gun-safety advocates are urging state lawmakers to pass a package of new firearm restrictions this session.
Multiple firearm-related bills received public hearings Tuesday morning, including …
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Gun-safety advocates are urging state lawmakers to pass a package of new firearm restrictions this session.
Multiple firearm-related bills received public hearings Tuesday morning, including proposals that would impose stricter limitations on buying guns and ammunition. That afternoon, the Alliance for Gun Responsibility held a news conference to outline its 2025 legislative agenda.
Among the proposals was House Bill 1152, which would establish firearm-storage requirements in homes and cars. State Rep. Beth Doglio, an Olympia Democrat who sponsored the bill, said it would enshrine storage standards that many responsible gun owners already adhere to.
“Secure storage is a common-sense measure that balances the right of firearm owners with urgent public health and safety needs to ensure that guns are stored properly and securely,” Doglio said at the alliance’s press conference.
Proponents say such measures would make communities in Washington safer and they defend the bills’ constitutionality. But critics argue that the legislation infringes on the freedoms of law-abiding citizens.
Doglio noted that this year’s set of gun-safety bills is meant to address the threat of gun violence and help save lives. Lawmakers are also aiming to stem the flow of stolen and illegal guns into communities, she said.
Doglio said unsecured firearms pose a public-safety hazard, especially to children. Improperly stored guns significantly raise the risk of suicides, theft and accidental shootings, she added.
Each year, hundreds of thousands of firearms are stolen, Doglio said. A large number of those are taken out of vehicles and then used to carry out violent crimes; KING 5 reported last year that 86% of stolen guns in Renton were obtained that way.
Doglio’s bill and three others received public hearings Tuesday morning in the House Civil Rights and Judiciary Committee.
But Sara Conrad, a single mom from Pierce County, spoke virtually in opposition to HB 1152. She said the measure would impede her ability to protect herself and her three kids, all of whom have received firearm-safety training.
Conrad wants her children to be able to defend themselves if the “unimaginable were to happen.”
“When you’re on your own in a vulnerable situation, every moment counts,” she said. “This bill would strip us of our ability to protect ourselves when we need it most.”
‘We need to do something’
For gun violence-prevention advocate Robert Schentrup, the push to pass stronger firearm laws is personal. During the Alliance for Gun Responsibility’s news conference, he said that his sister was killed in the 2018 Parkland high school shooting in Florida.
It’s “absolutely embarrassing” that every day in the U.S. people are fatally shot, Schentrup said. No other country has the same problem.
In Schentrup’s view, Washington has done much to combat this issue in recent years — but more can still be done. The death of his sister and 16 of her classmates served as a “wake-up call” about the ongoing gun-violence epidemic, he said.
“I saw people around the country and around the world react to the loss that my family experienced and saying, ‘This is enough. We need to do something about this issue,’” said Schentrup, who today lives in Seattle.
State Rep. Jamila Taylor, chair of the Civil Rights and Judiciary Committee, said the proposed gun restrictions form a system to make communities safer. The Federal Way Democrat urged her peers to protect funding for gun-violence prevention work and community-intervention programs.
The state is contending with a multibillion-dollar budget shortfall this session, she added: “But we cannot balance the budget on the lives and safety of Washingtonians.”
Republican response
Senate Republican Leader John Braun said during a Tuesday morning media availability that state lawmakers are genuinely worried about gun violence. Washington is among the most restrictive states in terms of firearm access. Despite that, he said, it has seen a rise in violent crime.
“At some point we have to acknowledge that the Democratic majority is going about solving this problem the wrong way,” Braun said. “They’re trying to restrict rights on law-abiding citizens at the same time we have bills reducing the sentences on gun violence.”
State Rep. Jim Walsh, an Aberdeen Republican, told McClatchy that HB 1152 would violate Washingtonians’ right to “keep and carry firearms in defense of yourself and the state.” He disagrees with the notion that new limitations and storage rules would help prevent gun violence in the state.
Similar to Braun, Walsh noted that while the Legislature passed gun restrictions over the past decade, shootings have still spiked.
“It’s ghoulish of anti-gun rights extremists to exploit the emotional suffering of a few people for political advantage,” said Walsh, who also chairs the Washington State Republican Party, via text. “Their proposals remain plainly unconstitutional. And, more importantly, ineffective on their own terms.”
Other gun-related bills heard in committee Tuesday included:
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