“Our state’s legislators and members of Congress used to quake in their boots at displays of clout by the National Rifle Association. As recently as 1994, the NRA went gunning for House Speaker Tom Foley and freshman U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee in their Eastern Washington districts. NRA President Charlton Heston came to Seattle to raise money against Foley. ‘Moses’ would not travel as far as Spokane. Inslee and Foley lost. The NRA routed a gun safe storage initiative in 1997. But that was then. The tables have turned in the Evergreen State. The NRA stayed out of 2018 Washington legislative elections, while the state’s gun safety lobby passed its third statewide initiative in five years. The minimum age for purchase of assault rifles was hiked from 18 to 21; background checks were strengthened. The Alliance for Gun Responsibility, born out of the Newtown, Connecticut, massacre of 20 first-graders, has surpassed the Gun Lobby as a player in state politics.”

 

Read the full article by Joel Connelly at the Seattle PI.