Washington moves closer to bump stock ban

A bill that would ban bump stocks, a device that increases a weapon’s rate of fire, is a step closer to becoming law.

SB 5992 passed the House of Representatives 56-41 on Friday, Feb. 23, largely along party lines. The bill passed in the Senate 29-20 on Jan. 25.

“It’s always been my belief that lawmakers should be judged not by what we say in response to gun violence but by what we do in response to gun violence,” said Rep. Laurie Jinkins, D-Tacoma, during floor debate.

The votes came in the wake of a school shooting in Parkland, Florida last week in which 17 people were killed. Since then, Parkland students have traveled to their state capital to lobby for further gun regulations.

The conversation about bump stocks ignited across the country after a shooting at a country music concert in Las Vegas that killed 58 people.

While lawmakers addressed national news, state tragedies weighed heavy on their minds. Rep. Lillian Ortiz-Self, D-Mukilteo, said she was a counselor responding to a shooting at Marysville Pilchuck High school on Oct. 24, 2014, when four students were killed before the gunman fatally shot himself.

“I know this isn’t going to make everything right, but it is a step in the right direction,” she said.

Of 48 Republican lawmakers, 40 voted against the bill. Rep. Jay Rodne, R-Snoqualmie, said the bill sets up a system where the government can confiscate weapons and is an affront to the Second Amendment.

Good people with firearms has always been the way to stop people with intentions to kill, said Rep. Matt Shea, R-Spokane Valley. Shea served as a platoon leader in Bosnia for eight months, and 11 months as a company commander and logistics officer in Iraq, according to his site biography. He cited his military experience when supporting a citizen’s right to protect themselves.

“It is not going to change the hearts of bad people,” Shea said of the bill. “It is not going to deal with the mental health crisis we have. It is not going to deal with the veteran suicide epidemic that we have. That’s where our priorities should be.”

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle pointed to mental health measures both in national news and Washington state.

A supplemental operating budget, SB 6032, passed the Senate floor 25-23 on Friday, Feb. 23, and would invest nearly $294 million additional dollars over four years to improve mental health treatment around the state, according to a news release.

Nine amendments proposed during the debate outlined exemptions for people with disabilities, exemptions for veterans and law enforcement officers, and one would have allowed people to keep the bump stocks they already have.

Eight of the nine amendments failed. The bill makes bump stocks illegal to manufacture or sell beginning in July 2018, and then illegal to own in July 2019. The amendment that passed sets up a buy-back program.

The bill has to pass both chambers, the House and the Senate. But before going to Gov. Jay Inslee’s desk to sign, the bill will go back to the Senate for consideration on the amendment.