SEATTLE (AP) — Seattle’s mayor and a city council member announced Wednesday that they plan to propose legislation that would require gun owners to lock up firearms in their homes and vehicles.
Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan and Councilor M. Lorena Gonz?lez said the legislation also could increase penalties for people who fail to report lost and stolen guns, The Seattle Times reported.
They said the move comes in response to a widespread gun-violence crisis and to Seattle shootings.
In 2015, an estimated 150,000 adults in King County reported keeping a firearm unlocked, according to Durkin’s office.
“We should not pretend for one minute that the level of carnage that we are seeing in our country is inevitable, is normal,” Durkan said. “We have to move beyond just thoughts and prayers and grief to action.”
Details of the legislation will be worked out in the coming months in consultation with gun owners, safety advocates, public-health experts and others, the officials said.
State law bars Washington cities from regulating guns, and Durkan said she expects the legislation would be challenged in court. She said she’s confident the city would prevail because the legislation wouldn’t stop anyone from buying, carrying or transporting a gun.
“This is not an anti-gun measure. This is a gun-safety measure,” Durkan said.
Dave Workman, spokesman for the Citizens Committee for the Right to Bear Arms, said the Bellevue-based organization is letting Seattle’s proposal sink in. The committee is affiliated with the Second Amendment Foundation.
“There’s not a lot of wiggle room” in state law for cities to enact measures related to guns, Workman said.
There were 88 shootings in Seattle last year, killing 18 people, according to the Seattle Police Department.
Cities including San Francisco and Los Angeles have laws requiring gun storage.
