OLYMPIA — As more-expansive gun background checks are set to take effect Thursday in Washington, law enforcement agencies, gun groups and others wait to see their impact.
Initiative 594, which passed this month with 59 percent of the vote, requires background checks on almost all sales and transfers, including private transactions and many loans and gifts. The exceptions include transfers between family members, sales of antiques produced before 1898, emergency gun transfers concerning personal safety and loans for hunting.
Six states — California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, New York, Rhode Island — plus Washington, D.C., currently require universal background checks for all sales and transfers of all firearms, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
About a dozen other states’ laws go beyond federal requirements.
Once I-594 takes effect, personal transactions that do not already involve a dealer would require a background check, and the person selling or transferring a firearm would need to either meet the potential buyer at a licensed dealer, who would run the check, or, if the seller ships the firearm, send it to a dealer in the city where the potential buyer lives.