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Weak gun laws blamed for Seattle violence

May 30, 2012 @ 3:53 pm (Updated: 3:55 pm - 5/30/12 )

"The gun violence problem is in Seattle. The solution is in Olympia," declares Ralph Fascitelli, president of Washington Ceasefire. "We have a lot of angry people who can easily get guns."

Seattle residents are trying to make sense of gun violence that has claimed five lives, in different neighborhoods, since last Thursday. Several others have been wounded in shootings.

Police have said guns, not gangs, are responsible for the crimes. Fascitelli blames Washington gun laws which he says are "terrible, the worst in the country."

GunshowPeople who buy guns through licensed dealers in Washington have to go through background checks and a five-day waiting period. The dealer is also required to keep complete records on gun sales. He says that doesn't happen at most gun shows every weekend in this state and around the country.

"People can buy an unlimited number of guns. They're not traceable, and it creates a secondary market for illegal gun sales," Fascitelli says.

Brady Foundation, a national group trying to prevent gun violence, estimates over forty percent of gun acquisitions occur in the secondary market.

Washington has weak gun laws that help feed the illegal gun market, allow the sale of guns without background checks and allow the sale of military-style assault weapons, according to the Brady Campaign.

They call that the "gun show loophole" which has been closed by legislation in Oregon and California, but not here.

"There isn't a kid in high school who couldn't get a gun in five minutes if he really wanted one," says Fascitelli.

"I have a hard time believing that," says Dave Workman, senior editor for TheGunMag.com. "It's a myth that it's easy to get a gun in Washington."

Workman also points out, there is no evidence that weapons purchased from gun shows were involved in any of the recent Seattle crimes.

Even so, Fascitelli recommends these solutions: Allow cities to create their own gun legislation which might be tougher than state laws; Make it illegal for anyone under the age of 21 to own a handgun, with a first offense resulting in a mandatory 24 hours in jail; Close the "gun show loophole" that creates a secondary market for weapons; Launch a public health campaign informing people that guns don't make residents safer.

Workman, who is also on the board of directors of the Washington Arms Collectors, thinks it would be "insane" for Seattle or any city to set their own gun laws.

"You can't have Seattle setting itself with gun laws that don't apply anywhere else," he says.

The Second Amendment Foundation said existing laws are enough to encourage gun safety. "Responsible people will maintain gun safety whether there is a law or not. Irresponsible people will ignore the law," says Workman.

Fascitelli is not satisfied with that reasoning, and maintains our state needs gun laws that are more strict.

"We don't have tougher laws because we are spineless in Washington state and we don't have leadership," he says.

Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn says he's "made it clear" to the police department that it's their "highest priority to identify the strategies that we need to employ to try to bring an end to this wave of gun violence that the city is seeing."

He also says current laws make it "too easy" for people to acquire guns.

By LINDA THOMAS

AP file photo

More from Linda Thomas

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Comments (154)


  • Add A Comment

  • xplanes wrote...
    Ralph Fascitelli is an idiot
    May 30, 2012 3:32 pm
    Easy access to guns for law abiding citizens is not the problem. What mental case or gang banger is going to pay $500 for a handgun when they can pay $50 for a stolen one? The revolving door justice system that coddles criminals (especially minors)and the refusal to take property crimes seriously are the real issues. We have an entire demographic growing up thinking crime is no big deal anymore and doing crime is a way to earn respect. They will kill you in a split second if they think they are being disrespected. Fix that! Problem is the SEattle liberal mentality has no answers for the problems they themselves have created. The only answer they have is to disarm law abiding citizens who are doing nothing wrong. Fortunately our state constitution provides even better protection from idiots like Ralph Fascitelli than our federal constitution does.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • sn98006 wrote...
    and...
    May 30, 2012 4:03 pm
    THe justice department moving in and castrating our police department...
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • delvin wrote...
    ok seattle libs- 1-gun shows shouldn't have less restrictions than gun dealers, I get that, but why cant you same libs get that the root cause of most gun violence (maybe not today's nut job) is WELFARE.
    May 30, 2012 7:36 pm
    I grew up in a farming community. Every kid I knew had a gun and most of us had them in our bedrooms. and they weren't BB guns. We hunted, shot target practice and killed coyotes and rattlers, but I never heard of anyone joining a gang and shooting up houses and people. I still go into the country to visit friends and relatives and every single family I know has many guns. Watch the news for farm kids joining gangs and killing people-it dont happen. (Spare me the rare exception of a nut job shooting his family) Bottom line welfare destroys the family, eliminates a dad and creates hoplessness. WHY CANT A LIB UNDERSTAND THIS????????
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  • RonJ wrote...
    BECAUSE THEY PERPETUATE
    May 30, 2012 8:22 pm
    the problem and have a vested interest in this cycle of violence. They don't give a crap about young black men killing each other no matter what they tell you. The 50+ years of welfare that fosters single parent families that is so prevalent among the black community has spawned this violence. It will take at least another 50 years to correct it, if not more.
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  • postal67 wrote...
    Right on Delvin
    May 31, 2012 6:02 am
    I grew up in Barrington IL! We jump the hoops to get a legal gun, criminals pass them around like chocolate bars on the streets in Chicago, IL. When I was Sixteen my father bought me a Mossberg 22 caliber target rifle. To shoot it, I would walk down main street to Hager Street, then to the pistol range used by the police. Or for more fun across Hager was the city dump where you could line up tin cans a shoot away. Making sure the a proper backstop was there. Who showed me how to do that? The Policemen that really knew HOW to protect, as Donut Shops weren't all over the place and you respected the Policeman.
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  • Daddy Dennis wrote...
    The burden of gun ownership.
    June 1, 2012 12:09 am
    The act of carrying a gun is a right, duty, and burden. The easy thing to do is outsource the need for protection to someone else.

    Most gun owners that I know carry one in spite of all the burdens that grow each day for one simple reason: They love you. They want to get you home safe to your kids if someone should try to kill you. And for this reason above all, we carry. If a madman aims at you, more than a bar stool will come from one of us toward the one on the rampage. Much more.

    I am for mandated gun ownership. The idea of the burden being an option is a false notion. The idea breaks down when some choose to place their own personal fear, discomfort, and philosophies above the need to have an armed citizenry.

    It works wonders in Switzerland and Israel. They are using forms of what our founders saw when they drafted the second amendment; all citizens armed and trained. Only objections based on faith are allowed. No working firearm = ticket.

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  • Roark wrote...
    Absolutely right
    May 31, 2012 10:24 am
    Liberals create these social problems like letting mentally ill people walk around untreated, but complain about an inanimate object when one of them uses it to kill people. It would be a lot easier to create laws to put people away who are a danger to themselves and others than it would be to try to go against the 2nd Amendment. And you'll never hear a liberal talk about the guns that have saved lives or prevented rapes.
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  • Paul Kersey wrote...
    Ralph Fascistelli...
    May 31, 2012 11:08 am
    "I gave the categorical order to confiscate the largest possible number of weapons of every sort and kind. This confiscation, which continues with the utmost energy, has given satisfactory results.ā€¯- Benito Mussolini
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  • Slave2Liberty wrote...
    that sums up his motivations entirely
    May 31, 2012 1:50 pm
    Only those who place themselves above the rest of the citizenry, believe they should have more rights than the rest of us. In this case, Fascistelli (nice) would prefer that only the enlightened, benevolent protectors should be afforded a right to effective self defense.
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  • Eric77 wrote...
    One with a gun....
    June 1, 2012 7:52 am
    Not to mention, one person carrying a concealed weapon, or open carrying would have been able to take him out and probably could have saved a few more lives. At least it would have stopped this monster from getting to his next kill at the parking lot!
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • roomtemp wrote...
    Last time I looked...
    May 30, 2012 3:33 pm
    Guns needed an operator. I've never seen a gun jump up and shoot someone by itself. There are lots of ways to kill someone without a gun. Blaming gun shows or gun availability is a cheesy cop out.

    It seems to me that people's desire to kill other people and lack of value for someone else's life is the real problem.

    It's not a gun problem, it's an empathy problem.

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  • kata wrote...
    [criminals] will always ignore the law
    May 30, 2012 3:41 pm
    That's why they call them criminals.
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  • sghouse wrote...
    Hey Mr Ceasefire....
    May 30, 2012 3:42 pm
    ..here is a clue -- Thugs don't obey gun laws! Your demand for ever more gun laws will have ZERO effect on the thugs shooting up Seattle (and other places).

    Here's an idea, lets scoop up a few dozen gang bangers and drop them in the ocean to feed the fish. I promise that will have a more positive effect on public safety than every gun law ever written.

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  • mnpat wrote...
    These are all Holders talking points
    May 30, 2012 3:42 pm
    What they (Administration)tried to escalate through "Fast and Furious".
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • boomshakalaka wrote...
    ....
    May 30, 2012 3:44 pm
    maybe Seattle needs some of the toughest gun laws in the nation, like Chicago. After all, that city only had 40 shootings over Memorial Day weekend.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • postal67 wrote...
    Chicago by Boom!
    May 31, 2012 6:05 am
    Yea, I live forty miles NW of Chitago! We are now getting bangers out here, walking down the middle of the street daring you to hit them.. I will use John Wayne here, I won't hit you, really I won't.......sorry, I lied.
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  • Bubba wrote...
    Huh? More Laws?
    May 30, 2012 3:48 pm
    Even though I don't have a gun myself (or even want one), I don't believe that more gun laws will solve anything. Criminals don't care about laws; never have, never will.
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  • shark75 wrote...
    If homocide is against the law
    May 30, 2012 3:59 pm
    Surely any criminal will think twice about how they will go about murdering someone becuase more gun laws are going to create a headache for them as they plan on killing someone without violating any gun laws. Mayor McGinn, Ralph Fascitelli, Steve Rable, and Ron and Don: You are all morons!!!
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  • otmilkr wrote...
    Lots of folks LOVE Gun Control
    May 30, 2012 4:00 pm
    Pol Pot , Joseph Stalin , Kim Ill Jung , Adolf Hitler , Bill Clinton.... etc. I figured the left wing anti gun libs would come out of their cuckoo clocks and start squaking. These people are not stupid, they just make their money a different way than we do....
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  • shark75 wrote...
    One other thing
    May 30, 2012 4:20 pm
    Council member Bruce Harrell, did you see this guy up there on his soapbox? Dude, you're part of the PROBLEM!!! It looked like you were running for re-election with that stupid P.C. speech you gave up there..
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • NDI wrote...
    Weak gun laws?
    May 31, 2012 10:06 am
    I love it how the liberal media always finds a way to blame others. A nut gets a gun, and suddenly we need more laws. And yesterday, all the facts weren't even in and liberals were blaming the gun shows. A criminal will always find a way to get guns, no matter what laws are in effect. Why punish the law abiding citizen for what criminals do? It doesn't make sense. And liberals can accept the fact criminals don't live by laws.
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