Dori’s listeners react to I-1639 and I-940 passage

With Tuesday’s midterm election stirring up emotions, Dori opened up the phone lines to take reactions from listeners. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the issues that drew the most concern from listeners were gun control measure I-1639 and police oversight measure I-940, both of which are passing by a margin of about 20 percentage points in early voting results.

Chuck in Preston said that he was flabbergasted at the passage of I-1639, since everyone he knew had voted against it.

“The fact that it passed and the margin it passed by was a total shock to me,” he said.

See the local election results

Chuck said that the part of the initiative that would have gun owners prosecuted if they do not lock their gun in a safe and a criminal steals their gun and uses it to commit a crime is akin to allowing a man to beat up his neighbor because his wife leaves him.

Dori scratched his head a bit at that metaphor, and said he would have to think about it for a bit before commenting.

Karl in Tacoma brought up a question that has not been addressed: What happens if a gun owner locks their gun in a safe, but a criminal breaks into the house and steals the entire safe?

“A lot of these gun safes that you can buy are very small — you can pick them up and walk away with them,” he pointed out.

Karl said that this very scenario happened to one of the women in his neighborhood safety group a few years ago.

Dori said that he did not know what would happen, but advised gun owners to document locking their guns up with photos and video. However, Dori expects the entire initiative will be overturned in court.

“I actually am not even a gun owner, and I don’t agree with the initiative whatsoever,” Karl said. “I think it’s ridiculous.”

Plenty of voters also expressed their feelings over I-1639 in text messages.

Earlier in the show, Dori said that he could not understand why the same liberals who argue that 18-year-olds should not buy semi-automatic rifles because their brains have not yet fully developed then turn around and advocate for 16- and 17-year-olds to have the right to vote.

Several people in support of the gun initiative responded, “your vote doesn’t kill people; guns do,”

Dori called this “a profoundly ignorant attitude,” pointing out how the election of Seattle City Council members can have the indirect power to end people’s lives, since, he said, city policies have filled Seattle with drug addict vagrants who have committed rapes, assaults, and murders.

“Your vote absolutely does impact the public safety every bit as much as this bogus gun legislation,” Dori rebutted. “So don’t try telling me that a vote is less important for public safety than guns.”

One Seattle-area texter who worries about the amount of crime in the region agreed. He said that if gun owners are forced to lock their self-defense weapon away through I-1639, and if police officers are inhibited from going after criminals through I-940, then the criminals will have free rein on the streets.

“Dori, it is such a disappointment seeing 60 percent of the people in this state not caring about taking away the rights of others; 1639 will do nothing to make people safer,” he wrote. “It takes away self protection, and along with 940 handcuffing police, the only ones really rejoicing today are the criminals. Thanks, commies.”

I-940 came up in other text messages as well. Those who have the greatest familiarity with police work — law enforcement officers and their spouses — texted in, expressing fear over the amount of de-policing that is already happening in the region, and the amount that will occur with the implementation of this initiative.

One police officer’s wife said that if her husband could be prosecuted for doing his job, then she does not want him working so hard.

“As a cop wife, 940 has me thinking, ‘Babe, maybe you should just slow your role heading to calls and forget about being proactive,'” she wrote. “I need him coming home and not heading to jail.”

A police officer wrote in with his own gut-wrenching story.

“Dori, I’m a cop in the South King County area. I’ve talked with over 35 other cops today while sitting in a training class, cops from all over the state. De-policing is coming,” he wrote. “We will never be charged for not chasing a bad guy or not stopping a violent felon. No cop is looking to kill someone, not one. I’ve given my life for this job, and at this point, I wonder if it’s been worth it. I’ve lost my family through a divorce already, not all based on the job, but it clearly had a part. I will not risk being no longer able to financially support my kids because of politics. Law enforcement does a horrible job educating the public; politicians and the media don’t help either. Keep doing God’s work, Dori.”