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Westneat: Legislature’s gun ban smacks of hypocrisy
By Danny Westneat
Published: February 15, 2015, 12:00am
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When lawmakers unexpectedly banned the open carrying of guns in parts of the state Capitol recently, some gun owners were upset. But they weren’t the only ones.
Gun-control advocates were also irked. Though for an entirely different reason. “It’s ironic, isn’t it?” said Seattle City Councilman Bruce Harrell. “We can’t as a city do what the state just did. Why? Because they won’t let us.”
When about 20 protesters went into the House viewing gallery in Olympia last month and waved around their rifles and pistols, our typically pro-gun Legislature suddenly got very uncomfortable. Both the House and Senate abruptly banned the open display of firearms in their chambers and hearing rooms (concealed carry with a permit is still OK).
“I don’t want the people who are on the floor being fearful of doing their jobs,” said Lt. Gov. Brad Owen, who runs the Senate.
That seems like kind of a no-brainer. Citizens shouldn’t be allowed to stand over elected officials with guns anymore than your boss should stand over you with one while you work. Most state capitols don’t allow any guns inside, unless carried by law enforcement.
But because the Legislature did this by private rule, it applies only to them. Anyone is still free to sling a semi-automatic rifle over his or her shoulder and head on into a meeting of the local city council, planning commission or library board.
“What the Legislature did is the height of hypocrisy,” says Scott Missall, a lawyer for Short, Cressman and Burgess in Seattle, who works as a contract city attorney for some small cities around the region. “If it’s so obvious that guns have no place in the House or Senate, how is it any less obvious in our local city and county council meetings?”
Spotlight brighter
It’s not a purely symbolic issue. In 2013, a dozen citizens armed up for some meetings of the Oak Harbor City Council, standing in the back with M1 rifles and the like while lawyers told the council it had no authority to do anything about it. State legislators can be “fearful of doing their jobs;” the rest of you just have to man up.
Seattle City Hall, especially, is face-palming over this. In 2008, then-Mayor Greg Nickels barred guns from the city’s public buildings and parks.
That order also covered concealed guns, so it admittedly went farther than the recent Capitol ban. But when it was thrown out by the courts, the judges said the reason was that only the Legislature can give the city the power to pass a gun restriction, which it has not done.
Harrell tried to be diplomatic about how lawmakers now are doing for themselves what they won’t let Seattle do. Gaining the “ability to regulate firearms in public places” is listed as the city’s No. 1 legislative priority this year.
“I don’t know, maybe this will open a new avenue of dialogue,” he said. “Maybe now they’ll be able to see our point of view?”
But probably not, he guesses. The Legislature has long refused to live by rules it writes for others. State legislators convene secret meetings every day that violate the Open Meetings Act — or would if they hadn’t exempted themselves. Ditto with the Public Records Act.
The spotlight is brighter with guns, though. There was yet another gun rally at the Capitol last weekend, but this time the 50 or so “armed patriots” were locked out of the galleries. They said they’d be back.
Other gun-rights backers have begun worrying where this is all headed.
“The politicians in our state have, thankfully, upheld our open carry laws for some time,” one wrote at the OpenCarry.org gun forum. “But all of a sudden, when people show up on their ‘doorstep’ open carrying, they suddenly feel unsafe and start passing laws or instituting bans. … Why it is acceptable for our lawmakers to support open carry, so long as it is not around them?”
Anybody at the Capitol want to field that one?
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