Todd Herman and Gee Scott on Washington’s gun initiative

KTTH’s Todd Herman and KIRO Nights’ Gee Scott may disagree on gun policies, but when it came to the news surrounding gun control initiative I-1639, the two were in agreement that the contested initiative is illegal.

Filling in for KIRO’s Dori Monson, the two discussed the news that the Washington State Supreme Court tossed a lawsuit against the initiative to Secretary of State Kim Wyman to approve or reject.

The initiative, sponsored by the Alliance for Gun Responsibility, raises the age for purchasing semi-automatic rifles from 18 to 21, mandates enhanced background checks before purchasing assault weapons, requires the completion of a firearm safety course before purchasing a semi-automatic weapon, and holds gun owners accountable for any gun-related accidents that occur due to unsafely storing a weapon.

RELATED: Supreme Court dismisses lawsuit against I-1639

The lawsuit, brought forward by the Second Amendment Foundation and the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms states that, in violation of state law, the Alliance did not print the actual language of the initiative on the petition, and that other text on the petition was too small for signers to read.

“The state law is clear — you have to put the language of the initiative on the initiative,” Todd said, pointing out that if Tim Eyman initiatives have been struck down for not following state law, then this should be as well.

Gee said “there are a lot of things about [the initiative] that I agree with,” but that in this case, the initiative itself could not move forward because it had not followed protocol. He criticized the people behind the initiative for not taking the time and effort to make sure they had followed every step before submitting the petition.

“If I’m Paul Allen, I’m mad as hell,” Gee Scott said. “I gave you guys $1 million for this initiative … You had one job and one job only.”

In forcing the decision to Wyman, Todd accused the court of making “a complete dodge and totally politicizing this.”

“They want to split the Republican Party, they want to make this tough on Kim Wyman,” he said.

He called the Washington State Supreme Court the “Seattle Supreme Court” because “they don’t represent the state at all.”

If I-1639 is held up and passes, “my people on the gun-owning side are not going to follow one letter of this law,” Todd said. “And we shouldn’t, because it’s an invalid law.”

He asked if citizens “are under an obligation to follow blatantly illegal laws?”

Gee applauded Todd for standing up against illegal measures, but pointed out that he, as an African-American, does not have the privilege in our society of refusing to follow a law, even if said law is invalid.

“I don’t have that privilege that you are talking about that … For you to be able to do that, I say power to you, brother,” Gee said. “But I can’t do that.”