It is merely a prop for grandstanding and appealing to the anti-gun crowd.
A hookah lounge in south Seattle was the scene of a horrific shooting Sunday that claimed the lives of three people and wounded six others. Several frantic calls came into authorities from the establishment at roughly 4:30 a.m.
The victims included a 22-year-old man and a 33-year-old man who died there. A 30-year-old woman was taken to Harborview Medical Center where she later died.
Wounded victims ranged in age from 21 to 38, and a 23-year-old man is listed in critical condition.
Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell (D) wasted no time attacking guns rather than the suspect or suspects in the shooting. In a statement, he said law enforcement “keeps up a rapid and record pace of recovering guns — 869 through July — there are still more illegal guns in the wrong hands that could be used to incite another tragedy like this one.”
Never mind that the investigation had not even gotten off the ground. It was time to jump to conclusions and blame inanimate objects for the acts of disturbed criminals.
Harrell also launched an attack on Washington’s model firearms preemption law. He cited his partnership with state legislators to “end state preemption over firearms.”
These laws place state statutes above city laws, and local ordinances may not supersede those of Washington state lawmakers. They are often used to prevent city and county governments from imposing harsher gun control measures than those approved by the state.
Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA) Chairman Alan Gottlieb immediately noted the fallacy in the mayor’s knee-jerk statement. Harrell fell back onto spouting his agenda “instead of encouraging people to help police solve this terrible crime and bring the perpetrators to justice.”
Gottlieb recalled that Harrell was a city councilman in 2015 when the body quickly adopted Seattle’s tax program on guns and ammunition. Of course, supporters claimed this was a magic pill that would reduce violent crime by sweeping firearms off the streets.
Meanwhile, homicides in Seattle more than doubled and gun tax revenue fell far short of the rosy predictions by its backers.
“Mayor Harrell seems to forget that Seattle did adopt a policy — the gun tax — on the promise it would help prevent gun-related violence and the past eight years have shown it to be a total failure.”
Gottlieb asked if city leaders would replace harping on getting guns out of circulation with doing their jobs to get violent criminals off the streets.
Harrell posted a statement on his official website lauding the city’s “holistic approach” to dealing with its crime issue. Gottlieb and many other critics observe that city leaders are free to approach crime as they choose. However, “soft on crime” policies only embolden lawbreakers and leave promises of safer streets unfulfilled.
CCRKBA’s Gottlieb pointed to the 40 years of Washington state’s preemption laws as creating uniformity. He then blasted political leaders who have the misguided conviction that penalizing lawful gun owners prevents violent crime.
Politicians such as Harrell are quick to pounce on any “solution” that will placate their base. Real solutions, however, will only come with the realization that those who perpetrate violence must be dealt with to keep the public safe.
And those who obey the law are not the problem.
