We have told you for months about the WAGR, or Washington Alliance for Gun Responsibility, and in November YOU will get to decide if they win.

Wealthy Seattle-area venture capitalist Nick Hanauer formed the group after the Newtown, CT massacre in 2012.   And recently Bill and Melinda Gates have donated $1 million dollars to help the cause, as have several other wealthy benefactors.  We at Newstalk 870 have been following their activities since their inception.

Unlike previous anti-gun initiatives, 594 is very well funded.  But it's different than gun registration drives.   594 is often called the "gun show" initiative.   According to the Seattle PI Blog, and the National Rife Association (NRA)  this is what 594 would do:

According to the Seattle PI blog:  I-594 is nothing about registering guns. It would extend to private gun sales — e.g., gun shows and on-line purchases — the background checks of those who now purchase through licensed firearms dealers.

The NRA reports:

  • Virtually every firearm transfer - with very few and limited exceptions - would be required to go through a licensed firearms dealer under the provisions of I-594.
  • I-594 will specifically regulate transfers, not sales.  Under the language of I-594, in virtually all cases, a person merely handing his or her firearm to a family member or a friend cannot do so without brokering the transfer through a gun dealer with the accompanying fees, paperwork, taxes and, in the case of handguns, state registration.

It would also extend the waiting period on the purchase of a handgun from 5 to ten days, and extend it to every private transfer of a gun.

It's been called the gun show law because all these restrictions would be applied to people who purchase guns at gun shows.   The PI blog points out that Hanauer often tells how his ancestors fled tyranny in Nazi Germany to come to the U.S. but fails to mention an important fact:   Much of the reason Hitler was able to rise to power and perform the acts he did was because after he took power,  Germany instituted similar strict gun control registrations that resulted in the population eventually being disarmed.

Opponents of this registration say it will make it far easier for authorities in the future to confiscate weapons from the population.

Supporters of I-594 claim 80% of prison inmates obtained guns through private transfers, but according to the U.S. Department of Justice statistics from 1993-2011 and again in 2013,  77% got them through "fencing, drug dealers, burglary, or other on-the-street illegal black-market operations."     Opponents say this law won't have any effect on criminals getting guns.

Rather than attempt to circumvent the Constitution and try to ban guns outright,  anti-gun groups such as WAGR attempt, say critics, to make it so difficult to get a gun that many won't try.  And they try to make it so restrictive to own one,  they will possibly be less likely to protest if confiscation ever occurs.

Find out and read up about I-594 and decide if it's something you would support.

 

 

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