Seattle Weekly reports

Late last week the campaign in support of Initiative 594 – which would require criminal background checks on gun show and Internet firearm sales if approved this November – launched with a predictable press conference, at least for those familiar with the road map to victory traveled by 2012’s Referendum 74, which legalized same-sex marriage. Prosecutors like King County’s Dan Satterberg (a Republican) and Snohomish County’s Mark Roe (a Democrat, and self-proclaimed “gun guy”) took to the stage, selling the virtues of the initiative. Faith leaders like the Rev. Sandy Brown, whose First United Methodist Church in Seattle played host to the event, where there too, as were plenty of gun-violence survivors. It was just the mix you’d expect from a campaign that will cast I-594 as a widely supported bipartisan effort to bring sensible gun regulations to Washington.

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Like R-74 before it, much of Silk’s work so far has been in building a broad coalition of supporters for I-594 from all walks of life, hopefully driving home the idea that gun background checks aren’t a partisan issue. So far, Silk says the I-594 campaign has found “natural allies” in the faith communities and among gun-violence victims and survivors. He expects endorsements like those given by Satterberg and Roe to continue.

“The great thing about the campaign we built so far is we’ve built a really broad base of support, and a really big tent,” says Silk, noting that they’ve gathered signatures from every county and legislative district in the state – or, as he puts it, “from Pullman to Sequim, and everyone in between.”

“There is an assumption that this is somehow a blue vs. red issue,” he continues. “But we’ve actually found that not to be the case. … For me, much like it was on marriage equality, we’re not making any assumptions on who is not with us. We believe this is a popular common sense measure. We believe most people will stand with us.”

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