KUOW’s Amy Radil reports on the tragedy that drove Marilyn and Matt to action:

James Balcerak was 23. He had autism and seemed to have lost hope of achieving the life he wanted.

In an argument, he made it clear he was thinking of suicide.

“When I was on the phone with 911, he was screaming through the door: ‘Yes or no, can I commit suicide? Yes or no? I’ll give you 10 seconds,’” his mom, Marilyn Balcerak recalled.

Balcerak worried her son would get a gun. She and her longtime partner Matt Smith also worried that trying to commit him or get a restraining order would sever ties with him.

. . .

Ultimately James bought a gun at the Fred Meyer store in Kent – the same store where she said she had taught him to shop and be polite to cashiers.

With that gun, James killed his stepsister Brianna Smith, 21, and then himself, at the family’s home in Auburn.

Balcerak wants to prevent similar tragedies, so she’s sponsoring Initiative 1491.

Under the measure, law enforcement, families and household members could request to remove someone’s guns if they were deemed a risk.

Balcerak said that if extreme risk protection orders had been in place for James, she would have sought to block James from buying a gun.

Read and listen to the full report here.