Disguised as legislation that improves background checks, Initiative 594 is a feel-good measure that theoretically prevents criminals or the mentally ill from obtaining firearms. It will do nothing to prevent criminals from surreptitiously obtaining weapons or ensuring that they will obey such a law. Ask yourself, will a criminal obey a gun law?
Nothing in the initiative addresses our dysfunctional mental-health care system. The initiative places an undue burden on law enforcement and legal gun owners by mandating fees, taxes, paperwork, etc., even in the case of temporarily loaning a firearm to a friend or family member. The state, in the case of handguns, will maintain a database of these transfers. This can eventually lead to confiscation at the whim of legislative bureaucrats.
Millionaires like Michael Bloomberg, Bill and Melinda Gates, and Paul Allen are funding the initiative. Their aim, through filtered media and legislation, is to make it so burdensome and taxing that the law-abiding citizens will surrender and disarm themselves. These millionaires have one thing in common. They all have their own privately armed security. Beware of (the multimillionaire) geeks bearing gifts.
Terry G. Popravak Sr.
Vancouver
