Michael Bloomberg, Bill Gates, Steve Balmer and others backing gun control initiative I-594 in Washington state either don’t know what’s in the referendum they’re supporting, or they simply don’t mind that that their poorly conceived ballot initiative would hurt lawful gun owners, gun shops, and firing ranges… without impacting criminals at all. Nor do they seem to care that the state’s law enforcement community has come out strongly against the proposal.

Why do these billionaires hate America?

According to the National Rifle Association (NRA), Ballot Initiative 594 could make the act of simply lending one’s gun to another person without a background check by a licensed dealer, at a firing range, for example, illegal.

The NRA contends that I-594, if passed, would make it that essentially each time a firearm changes hands, the transfer would have to be processed through a licensed dealer. As a result of the paperwork of almost every temporary transfer, the dealer to dealer must complete the Pistol Transfer Application. A copy of the application “which RCW 9.41.110(9) requires be sent to the Department of Licensing for inclusion in the state database of law-abiding handgun owners,” the NRA says.

Additionally, the NRA says that there are virtually no exceptions in I-594. For example, a loan exemption is not made for family members or friends, even if the gun owner is present during the time the firearm is used by the friend of family member.
Loaning one’s firearm to an adult family member for self-defense would be considered illegal, as well as loaning a shotgun to an adult friend to go hunting one day. Although an individual can “gift” a firearm to a family member, lending or selling the gun to that same family member is outlawed under I-594. Concealed Pistol License holders, who must be finger-printed for their licenses, are also not exempt.

“This (ballot measure) is being marketed by the Bloomberg gun control machine as a means of reducing gun violence in the state of Washington. In reality, it won’t. Don’t take our word for it. Take the words of the men and women in law enforcement [in Washington state],” NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanadam told Breitbart News.

The Washington Council of Police and Sheriffs (WACOPS) came out against I-594 in a statement over the summer, saying their membership opposed the 18-page initiative. WACOPS says I-594, although marketed as a public safety measure, “will not keep guns out of the hands of criminals and the mentally. REgulatsThey will continue to ignore the law and engage in black market transactions.”

Legislation similar to I-594 ballot initiative was forced through the Colorado legislature by anti-gun Democrats, two of which were ousted in Senate recall elections. A third resigned to avoid recall. Colorado Governor John Hickelooper has been running from the gun control legislation he signed into law ever since, and is in trouble in his reelection bid as a result.

More importantly, Colorado citizens seem to have simply decided to ignore the law.

I-594 is poorly written, and its effect, if passed, is to simply create yet another nanny-state victimless crime that will have no measurable effect on real gun crime. It will merely turn thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of people in criminals. Perhaps most importantly I-594 would  continue to undermine the public’s faith in our system of law and governance itself.

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Big government advocates who insist on thrusting the state into every aspect of our private lives simply don’t seem to understand that they are creating well-deserved contempt for government. When governments become oppressive, a free people have a right, and arguably a responsibility, to ignore these laws. Our Founders even believed that it is justifiable to throw off the yoke of this sort of tyranny by the force of arms in a rebellion. People seem to forget that the assault on Lexington and Concord that started the Revolutionary War was a gun control raid, stopped by Patriot militia who repulsed the Regulars at Concord Bridge and battered them all the way back to Boston Harbor.

Those petty tyrants who insist on shredding the Constitution are pushing us ever closer towards the next American Revolution, which many now seem to think is not just inevitable, but which may be imminent.

I-594 is just the latest affront to liberty by collectivists who have little use for individual rights.

Interestingly enough, I-594 is conflicted by I-591, which is described as a “dueling initiative” to protect gun rights in Washington state, and which is the only initiative supported by law enforcement organizations within the state.

Oddly, both initiatives may pass, setting up a showdown in the courts.