Washington State Pawnbrokers Association

Every Semiautomatic Rifle is an Assault Rifle

Let me start with the initiative language that will do the most harm, the definition of an assault rifle.

I-1639 creates the following definition:

“Semiautomatic assault rifle” means ANY rifle which utilizes a portion of the energy of a firing cartridge to  extract the fired cartridge case and chamber the next round, and which  requires a separate pull of the trigger to fire each cartridge.”

The age of your rifle, collectability,  ATF definition of the firearm as a Curio or Relic, caliber, rimfire or  centerfire, tube or box magazine—none of this makes any difference, ALL  semiautos are defined as assault rifles. Your kid’s .22 LR plinker is an  assault rifle. Your Garand collection is a collection of assault  rifles. Turn of the 19th to 20th century semiautos are assault rifles.

You say that you hate those black plastic  stocked AR-style rifles and wouldn’t have an “assault rifle” in the  house? Too bad, the anti-gun community has outflanked you this time by  including all of your wood stocked semiauto hunting rifles, all 22  semiautos and just about every rifle created from 1900 to now.

Registration of Rifles

Semiauto rifle transfers  will be handled like pistols are now with additional forms, State registration and waiting periods.

The Department of Licensing is authorized  to keep, “copies or records of applications to purchase pistols or  semiautomatic assault rifles.”

Opens up your medical records - indefinitely!

A violation of HIPPA law, a federal regulation. Under the guise of keeping the mentally challenged from obtaining a firearm this will allow government officials to look at and determine if you should have a gun.

Firearm Storage is Criminalized

A new crime of “community endangerment”  is created that will allow you to be charged and jailed if your firearm  is taken and misused. Yes, if you have secured your firearms you may not  be charged and in this section gun locks are mentioned along with  secure storage. We all strongly support safe firearm storage but  changing the law to shift the blame for a crime onto the victim of a  crime is wrong. The message to the public and the legal system is that  your formerly law-abiding gun ownership is a threat to the community.

Annual Verification of Eligibility

I-1639 will institute a system that  annually reviews your record to determine your eligibility to own firearms. You should expect that medical records, mental health issues,  and social security disability will all be reviewed to determine whether  you can possess that old semiauto hunting rifle. And you thought we  were trying to scare you with visions of the police at your door to  confiscate your firearms.

Out of State Purchasers

Residents of other states have been able  to purchase rifles and shotguns here in Washington. 1639 will end this  reasonable practice for semiauto rifles. Our WAC members in Idaho and  Oregon will be unable to come to our shows and collect these firearms.

No Longer an Adult at Age 18

At age 18, you can vote, you can be  charged with a crime as an adult, be imprisoned or drafted and do other  adult things but you can’t take your 22 rifle into the woods to plink  and you can’t go hunting with a license and a semiauto. I-1639 judges  you to be too immature to do these adult activities. Thinking about  taking your semi to the range for practice? Forget it—that  would be illegal.

What can an 18 year old do with a  semiautomatic rifle? Stay at home on your own property. That’s it. The  initiative states that a person, “ eighteen years of age, but less than  twenty-one years of age, may possess a semiautomatic assault rifle only:  (a) In the person’s place of abode; (b) At the person’s fixed place of  business; (c) On real property under his or her control.”

Seriously… you can no longer take your children to the range to have some shooting fun with the 10-22.

Government Safety Training Required

This initiative has costs that will be  borne by firearm purchasers and owners. A new regimen of “safety”  training to be delivered by government agencies is defined. Will it be  free? Of course not and the price is not stated or limited. Firearm  accidents are near zero in Washington. Death by firearm is either a  criminal act or a suicide—neither is preventable through any kind of  safety training. Hunter Safety classes teach safety and public and  private firing ranges all provide safety training. This requirement is a  bogus attempt to incorporate public safety into 1639 and increase the  costs and create obstacles to firearm ownership.

Trigger Locks required

And you thought that trigger locks were  already required? Well yes they are—by Federal law every firearm sold  must have with a locking device. This section appears to exist only so  that the initiative can masquerade as a safety measure. Nothing changes.

Rifles are Taxed

Sure they call it a fee but this is a tax  on semiauto rifles. A fee is to be assessed by dealers for the  Department of Licensing to use in their registration of firearms.

This article from the GunNews magazine,  Washington Arms Collectors, may be reprinted and distributed by all  those acting in opposition to I1639.