Background Check Bill Doesn't Have Votes in House

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

State Rep. Jamie Pedersen (D-43, Capitol Hill) just held a glum press conference in Olympia where he conceded that he couldn't get to the magical 50 votes to pass a universal background check bill for gun sales. (Currently private gun sales, including at gun shows, don't require criminal background checks.)

Pedersen's last-minute move to attach a referendum clause to the bill (which would have automatically put the law to voters) gave the legislation a second chance after it looked dead last week. But tonight Pedersen told reporters that the referendum idea eventually turned off as many legislators as it attracted. Some of his Democratic caucus colleagues, he said, thought putting such a major issue to voters during an off-year election was risky. He also said some of his colleagues didn't like the precedent that punting the issue to the public would set for other tough votes legislators have to take this year.

A recent Elway Poll showed major support for a universal background check bill (79 percent in favor), but Pedersen said "gun rights supporters were more intense in their engagement with the legislature" and "created a sense of distrust and skepticism that those numbers were true."

http://www.seattlemet.com/news-and-profiles/publicola/articles/tuesday-jolt-background-check-bill-doesnt-have-votes-in-house-march-2013

[mwrguy]

1. What a bunch of cowards

79% of the public wants gun control, and these legislators allow the gun nuts to drown that out.

[eridani]

2. Bill’s defeat a case study on gun issue

http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2020577201_westneat17xml.html

The gun-control drive in Olympia apparently ended last week, when a modest bill to expand background checks to private gun sales failed to even get a vote.

Why did it fail? The story of Rep. Maureen Walsh, R-Walla Walla, says it all.

She was one of the original sponsors of House Bill 1588. It said if you sell a gun but are not a gun dealer, you have to do a background check to see if the buyer is eligible to own a gun.

You’d have to go to a gun shop or police and pay them $20 to do the check. All kind of a hassle, yes. But the point was to slow the easy transfer of guns to people who shouldn’t have them.

After the NRA leafleted her district, flooding her with 1,000 calls and emails, Walsh changed her position to “no.” So ended the bill’s momentum.