The Stranger reports

Washington Alliance for Gun Responsibility, the campaign behind an initiative to require background checks for all gun buyers in Washington State, raised at least another $1 million at a 90-minute kickoff lunch this afternoon, sending an early signal that the gun lobby will face a well-financed challenge on the fall ballot.

[…]

Initiative 594 would require background checks on all gun sales and transfers, which, unbelievably, are not currently required between private parties—thereby allowing a person of any mental or criminal history to buy a firearm without scrutiny. I-594 would require gun transaction to be performed in front of a licensed dealer, who would call in the background check like any gun purchased directly from the dealer.

Polls show the measure passing with support of about three-quarters of voters, but, because politics is insane, a competing measure called Initiative 591 will appear on the same ballot to ban state-mandated background checks. And then, again, because politics is the only thing crazier than a gun-waving lunatic, polling shows both measures passing (but the pro-background-check initiative fares better by about 20 points).

Read the whole article here.