Washington State Gun Control Bill Bad News for Public Safety

While most states across the country have reported significant declines in violent crime over the past couple of years, in Washington State things have been going in the wrong direction. Murders, for instance, increased by 80% between 2019 and 2023, and though the city of Seattle recorded a slight decrease from 69 homicides in 2023 to 61 last year; a slight improvement but still far worse than pre-pandemic levels. 

Now lawmakers in Olympia are poised to enact a gun control measure that will not only make it more of a burden to exercise your right to keep and bear arms, but will saddle the Washington State Patrol with more paperwork; channeling resources that could be spent fighting crime to treating lawful gun owners as criminals. .

Kateri Candee manages the Firearms Background Division at WSP and spoke with The Center Square about Engrossed Second Substitute House Bill 1163, which passed the House of Representatives earlier this month. On Jan. 1, 2024, WSP took over conducting firearm background checks, requiring licensed firearms dealers to use the state’s Secure Automated Firearms E-Check, or SAFE, system, and a 10-day waiting period before a firearm can be transferred. 

“Last year we processed 250,000 background checks,” Candee said. “We average about a thousand checks per day coming in … we have to research, we have to verify that the information is correct and we do check out of state if there are things that could disqualify you.”

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ESSHB 1163 is likely to increase WSP’s workload.

“The bill states people would have to fill out an application form for a permit to purchase a firearm,” Candee noted. “They would have to get fingerprinted, and they would have to complete a certified training and pay the fee for the actual permit. The background check would be completed by the State Patrol. If everything is a go you are issued a permit that is good for five years.”

Buyers would be required to go through another background check after receiving their permit at the time purchase a firearm.

Why two background checks?

“I don’t know why, that’s just how the bill was written,” Candee said. “But I can tell you the permit is only a permit to purchase,” explained Candee, who said that given the permit is for five years, someone could be granted a permit but not use it for a couple of years. “Whatever may have happened in [those] two years, they want to ensure another background is completed.”

Candee says the WSP will have to hire more staff to process the permits-to-purchase if the legislation is enshrined into law, telling The Center Square there would “definitely an impact on State Patrol.” The bill proposes to pay for those additional hires through the fees that would-be gun buyers would have to fork over for their permits and mandated training, though the legislation doesn’t say how much those fees might be. 

We can get a rough idea of the cost, however, by looking at legislation in neighboring Oregon, where Democrats are proposing to increase the cost of the permit-to-purchase established by Measure 114 from its original $65 to $150, with a $110 renewal fee. And for what? As Candee acknowledged, gun buyers are already required to go through a background check before taking possession of their firearm in Washington, which has had “universal” background checks in place for several years. At best the permit-to-purchase measure is a bit of duplicative paper-pushing, but at worst it’s a way to price some people out of being able to exercise their Second Amendment rights. 

That alone will have an impact on public safety throughout the state, but HB 116t3’s mandates will also divert law enforcement resources away from the violent criminals who are the problem and direct them toward responsible gun owners who pose no threat to society. It’s the wrong move from both a public safety and constitutional standpoint, and Washingtonians will be feel the hit in their wallets and their personal security if it becomes law.