Rantz: Washington Democrats’ attacks on gun rights are way worse than you think

When it comes to legislative priorities, Democrats in Washington are nothing if not predictable. Yet again, they are making a play for our guns and infringing on our Second Amendment rights.

Their latest policy agenda, lifted straight from the Alliance for Gun Responsibility (AGR) as highlighted by the Washington Observer, is a master class in hypocrisy, confusion and misplaced priorities. They plan to tax ammunition and firearms, ban guns from more locations, enforce a permit-to-purchase guns requirement and end state pre-emption on gun laws, which would create a patchwork of varying gun laws that will effectively turn gun owners into criminals.

If any of their anti-gun ideas advance, Washingtonians will again lose constitutionally protected rights. But when it comes to the constitution, Washington Democrats ignore the parts they don’t like.

More from Jason Rantz: WIAA finally does what’s right, proposes league for transgender athletes

Washington Democrats will push gun and ammo tax, and more location bans

Democrats are again proposing an excise tax on guns and ammunition. The idea is as laughable as it is insidious.

Washington Democrats and AGR claim it’s about “responsibility,” but it’s really about making firearm ownership prohibitively expensive for law-abiding citizens. Who does this hurt most? Not the criminals running rampant in Seattle, Tacoma, Spokane and Vancouver — most of whom acquire firearms illegally — but everyday Washingtonians looking to protect themselves and their families. While decrying the state’s regressive tax structure, Washington Democrats have no issue making your Second Amendment right contingent on your income level.

Even more absurd is the proposal to ban guns in parks — where families gather, children play and where criminals don’t exactly pause to check for a “no guns allowed” sign. This is feel-good legislation at its worst, pretending to address gun violence while leaving law-abiding citizens defenseless in spaces where they might actually need protection. These same lawmakers go to great lengths to ensure their own safety, often at taxpayer expense, but when it comes to the rest of us? We’re denied.

But it gets worse.

More from Jason Rantz: Conservatives won a major abortion case that no one is talking about

Gun owners would easily become criminals

Democrats hope to empower local governments to create their own patchwork of gun laws by ending the state’s firearms preemption statute. Our firearm preemption law places regulations in the sole control of the state legislature. It’s easy to see why.

Imagine driving from your home in Sultan, where you can carry a firearm, into Seattle, where you unknowingly violated a dozen different ordinances because an anti-gun council decided to ban certain firearms or require registration. What may be legal in Tukwila and Bellevue could be illegal in Everett and Tacoma. This is a logistical nightmare, designed to trap gun owners into breaking the law or stop them from carrying to begin with.

No one benefits except the lawyers hired to sort out the mess and the anti-gun tyrants who seem perfectly content keeping guns away from good guys to protect themselves from the bad guys Democrats keep on the streets. It’s a backdoor way to make gun ownership so complicated and risky that people simply give up.

More from Jason Rantz: Edmonds School District planned session to help illegal immigrants break federal law

Permit to enjoy a constitutionally protected right?

The signature anti-gun bill for Washington Democrats will be requiring a permit to purchase a firearm. This is the ultimate insult to constitutional rights and is illegal. But they’ll do it anyway.

The Second Amendment doesn’t say, “The right of the people to keep and bear Arms, provided they have a government-issued permit.” It’s a right, not a privilege. Can you imagine the outcry if we applied this same standard to other rights? Require a permit to get an abortion or give a speech at a Black Lives Matter rally? The Left would lose their minds. Yet they gleefully and eagerly undermine gun ownership under the guise of “safety,” even as they pass laws that go soft on violent offenders.

This is the same legislature that decriminalized hard drugs like fentanyl and meth, only to see overdose deaths skyrocket. It’s the same legislature that passed laws protecting juvenile criminals from talking to police and banning police vehicular pursuits. And now they have the gall to suggest that disarming law-abiding citizens will somehow make us safer?

Washington Democrats are hypocrites — again

The hypocrisy is staggering.

The Left demands no restrictions on abortion — a procedure that is not even a constitutional right — arguing that any limitations infringe on a woman’s bodily autonomy. But when it comes to the actual constitutional right to bear arms, they’re eager to pile on every restriction they can dream up.

The Left tells us that voter ID laws are racist and unconstitutional; that you shouldn’t have to spend money on a license in order to engage in a right. Yet the right to own a gun? Pay for a costly permit! And then pay a tax on ammo.

Who does any of this benefit?

Washington Democrats — a party for criminals

Washington Democrats love to claim they’re targeting “gun violence,” but their policies do nothing to target criminals. As they’ve imposed harsher restrictions on guns, crime has soared.

Criminals don’t pay taxes on their ammo, they don’t apply for permits and they certainly don’t care about your city’s latest gun ordinance. Washington Democrats only seek to disarm law-abiding citizens, leaving us vulnerable in a state where criminals are already empowered to act lawlessly.

If Democrats were serious about public safety, they’d focus on keeping repeat offenders behind bars. Instead, they pander to activists who see every legal gun owner as a villain.

Washington doesn’t have a responsible gun owner problem. Washingtonians deserve better and we must reject this assault on our rights.

Listen to The Jason Rantz Show on weekday afternoons from 3-7 p.m. on KTTH 770 AM (HD Radio 97.3 FM HD-Channel 3). Subscribe to the podcast here. Follow Jason Rantz on X, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook.

Follow @https://twitter.com/jasonrantz