I-594, the
ANTI-GUN/GUN-CONTROL initiative that will be on Washington’s ballot this November, is clarified in a recent article written in NRA’s
America’s 1st Freedom magazine.
“
The Scam Artist"by Dave KopelAmerica’s 1st Freedom, July 2014
http://www.nrapublications.org/index.php/17946/the-scam-artist/The last section in the article,
“The Battle in the States” gives an overview of just how anti-gun, ominous, over-reaching, egregious, invasive, radical, and a direct affront to our rights and freedoms I-594 actually is. I-594 will affect only law-abiding citizens and will do nothing to deter crime or prevent criminals and/or madmen from committing their malevolent acts of violence.
Make no mistake about it,
I-594, the
ANTI-GUN/GUN-CONTROL initiative, is bad for gun owners, bad for hunters, and a direct assault on the rights and freedoms of all freedom loving Americans.
Here is the section,
“The Battle in the States”, from
“The Scam Artist” article by Dave Kopel (America’s 1st Freedom, July 2014):
“The Battle In The StatesFrom the pro-rights side, educating Bloomberg’s target voters is difficult. Since many of them are low information, they are not going to read a pro-rights essay on a newspaper editorial page, or seek out a variety of viewpoints on the Internet. Nor are they likely to carefully watch candidate debates, or study pro/con materials about ballot initiatives.
This makes them vulnerable to deception. A case in point is Bloomberg’s Initiative 594, which will be on the Washington state ballot in November.
Bloomberg’s people are telling Washingtonians that I-594 would require background checks on private gun sales. But that’s not the truth: I-594 is far more radical, and would actually outlaw almost all temporary loans of firearms, even among family members.
I-594 expressly applies to “loans,” which would have to be treated identically to sales. To loan someone a firearm for an afternoon, both of you would have to go to an FFL and fill out all the registration paperwork as if the FFL were selling a gun out of his inventory. The FFL would then contact the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System to seek permission for the transfer. The FFL could charge whatever he likes as a service fee for conducting this “transfer.”
A few hours later, after your friend is ready to return your gun to you, both of you would have to return to a firearms store. You again have to fill out all the paperwork as if you were buying the gun from the dealer. This time, the dealer will contact the FBI for a background check on you. Again, the dealer will charge whatever fee he wishes for the service. If you don’t go to a gun store in order to loan, borrow or return a personal firearm, then both the person who loaned the gun and the person who borrowed the gun
are criminals.
There are very few exceptions. Family members can give a firearm to each other as a gift. But they cannot sell or loan a firearm to each other. The only intra-family loans allowed are between spouses or domestic partners.
You can share a gun “at an established shooting range authorized by the governing body of the jurisdiction in which such range is located.” But if you share your gun on your farm, while you and a buddy plink at soda bottles or varmints, then you and your friend are both criminals—unless you and your buddy drive to a gun store to get permission and pay the fee every time the gun is handed back and forth from one person to another.
Washington law allows a person of any age to obtain a hunting license. Suppose your 17-year-old son wants to borrow your rifle to go hunting. Bloomberg’s I-594 would allow that only if you or another adult go hunting with him, and he is kept under “direct supervision and control.”
If your son wants to go hunting on his own, then you’re supposed to go to the gun store to get permission to let him use your rifle. But when you get there, the FFL won’t be allowed to process the loan. The federal Gun Control Act forbids FFLs to transfer long guns to any person under 18, and handguns to any person under 21.
How about an adult friend who wants to borrow your hunting rifle for the weekend? Well, if the two of you were in the field together, you could let him use your gun. But suppose the two of you are staying at a motel, and you wanted to let him examine the gun for a while the night before your hunt. That would be a crime. The hunting exception only applies “if the hunting is legal in all places where the person to whom the firearm is transferred possesses the firearm.” Since hunting is not legal in motel rooms, you and your friend are both criminals.
The penalties for violating Bloomberg’s I-594 are severe. Loan your gun to your brother so he can go rabbit hunting for an afternoon on your own property, and you are both guilty of a gross misdemeanor (up to 90 days in jail, and a $1,000 fine). A second violation is a Class C felony (up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine).
And there’s one more trick up Bloomberg’s sleeve: All the exceptions are classified an “affirmative defense.” This means that even if the transfer of a firearm (e.g., giving a family member a Christmas present) was lawful, you can still be arrested, prosecuted and tried. An “affirmative defense” cannot legally be raised until trial.
The 2014 election in Washington is the test-bed for similar initiatives Bloomberg and Everytown plan in a dozen more states, including Oregon in 2015. And it’s indicative of how his groups say one thing when they actually mean another.
Shannon Watts claims: “We are not anti-gun and we’re not anti-Second Amendment.” (San Francisco Chronicle, May 4, 2014). But that’s not true.
She repeatedly says she wants to ban “assault weapons.” According to Watts, “An assault weapon enables humans to shoot 10 rounds in one minute.” (Twitter, @shannonwatts, 1:48 pm—Nov. 1, 2013). Of course, except for a muzzleloader, every firearm can shoot 10 rounds in one minute.
In short, when the Bloomberg lobby tells you that they want “background checks,” what they really mean is that they want to criminalize all gun owners for normal activities such as sharing guns for a little while with friends or family. When, they tell you that they want to ban “assault weapons,” what they actually mean is that they want to ban as many guns as they can dupe legislators into outlawing.
That’s why despite some setbacks, Bloomberg’s $50 million could have a devastating effect on your rights, regardless of where you live. And it’s why we must all Stand and Fight to ensure we still have a Second Amendment to pass down to our children and grandchildren.
”Every gun-owner, hunter, and freedom loving American absolutely must VOTE this November.VOTE NO on I-594
