My NorthWest reports

The battle over gun control in Washington State heated up Thursday as backers of a new initiative to require background checks for all gun sales kicked off the campaign to pass I-594.

The measure is one of a pair of gun initiatives on the November ballot this year, with the competing I-591 seeking to block any new state gun regulations that have not been enacted at the federal level.

King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg was among a large and diverse group that turned out for the I-594 campaign kickoff. The Republican argues state laws prohibiting gun sales to convicted felons, minors and those who have been involuntarily committed for mental illness are far too easily evaded.

“You can buy a gun from Craigslist, you can buy a gun out of the trunk of a car, you can buy a gun on the street with no questions asked,” he says. “And the point of I-594 is, let’s make sure that people who are buying guns are legally allowed to have them.”

The measure has widespread support, including from Puget Sound-area faith leaders who banded together after the mass shooting at a Newtown, Connecticut elementary school. It has been endorsed by the state’s Catholic bishops and has raised $1.5 million in what is expected to be an expensive and extremely contentious battle.

“Complacency may reign in Olympia but Washington citizens will not be complacent,” says Cheryl Stumbo, who was shot and seriously wounded in the 2006 Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle shooting that killed one person.

Stumbo says she collected 3,000 signatures herself to get the measure on the ballot. “We are here because we have had enough,” she said at the campaign launch of failures by the legislature to pass gun control measures.

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