We knew that the momentum of our I-1639 ballot victory and the election of the first gun violence prevention majority in Olympia would mean big wins this legislative session. But we did not anticipate passing more GVP laws this session than in all the previous years of the Alliance’s existence COMBINED.

When all was said and done, a whopping 10 commonsense gun violence prevention laws were passed during the 2019 legislative session! They are:

1. SHB 1225 which empowers law enforcement to do more to prevent domestic violence incidents from becoming deadly by allowing officers to remove firearms from the scene of a domestic violence arrest.
2. EHB 1465 which closed a newly-opened loophole which would have allowed anyone with a physical concealed pistol license, regardless of the validity of that license, to acquire a handgun without undergoing a background check at the point-of-sale.
3. SHB 1739 which is a bipartisan bill that prohibits undetectable printed firearms and untraceable unserialized firearms.
4. SHB 1786 which strengthens our protective order system and standardizes the way firearms are addressed within those orders.
5. SHB 1949 which directs the Office of Financial Management to study centralizing our background check system and passed unanimously in both chambers.
6. SSB 5027 which clarifies our Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO) law and establishes a process to issue an ERPO against a juvenile.
7. SSB 5181 which establishes an automatic, six-month prohibition on firearms ownership and possession by anyone involuntarily held for 72-hours because they present a risk to themselves or others.
8. SB 5205 which closes a loophole that allowed people with a history of violence, who had been found incompetent to stand trial, to remain legally eligible to purchase and possess firearms.
9. SB 5508 which clarifies certain items about how the Washington State Patrol does background checks for concealed pistol licenses.
10. SSB 5954 which funds our state’s bump-fire stock buy-back program.

Now the hard work of making sure these laws are implemented as intended begins . . .

We want to thank our amazing supporters, donors, testifiers, and coalition partners who kept the pressure up all session long on these and other bills. We also want to thank our gun responsibility champions who sponsored and voted in favor of these bills.

Finally, a special thanks goes to our fellow and interns – Heather, Jeffrey, Ray, Kaeshon, Simreet, Paxton, and Loren – who not only conceived, produced and starred in the above video, but who also did the less-than-glamorous work this session to support all of the activities of the whole team at the Alliance for Gun Responsibility this session! The young people will win.

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–Tallman Trask is the Policy and Advocacy Director at the Alliance.