U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- King County, Washington is the hub of gun control extremism in the Pacific Northwest and by no small coincidence, according to new violent crime data released by County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg’s office, it is also seeing a “sharp spike” in gun-related violence.
Almost immediately after the announcement, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, which is headquartered in King County, came out swinging.
“Nothing more clearly illustrates gun control’s lack of success than the situation in King County,” noted CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “It is reflective of the national trend revealed in the FBI Uniform Crime Report for 2020, showing murders up by 30 percent nationwide. If restricting the gun rights of law-abiding citizens worked, this should not be the case.”
He took a swipe at the Seattle-based and billionaire-backed gun prohibition lobby which has pushed through two restrictive gun control initiatives since 2014.
“Let’s look at the embarrassing data,” Gottlieb said in a prepared statement. “According to the report, this year’s 73 gun-related homicides in King County so far have already surpassed last year’s total of 69, and there are still more than two months to go in 2021. Last year Seattle saw 52 murders, and the year before that there were 35. Seattle’s gun tax took effect in 2016, and that year the city reported just 19 murders.”
He reminded the media that anti-gun Initiative 594, mandating so-called “universal background checks” on all firearms transfers in Washington State, was passed in 2014. The following year, Seattle adopted a “gun violence tax” on the sale of firearms and ammunition. In 2018, Seattle’s elitist gun ban lobby financed another anti-gun initiative (I-1639), inventing a definition for “semiautomatic assault rifles” and prohibiting sales of such firearms to anyone under age 21. Instead of reducing homicides, the number of murders has crept upward. Ironically, Satterberg supported I-594 and according to Ballotpedia, he helped prepare arguments for the measure. Ballotpedia also reports King County Sheriff Mitzi Johanknecht helped write arguments in the 2018 Voters’ Guide supporting I-1639. A majority of Washington’s 39 county sheriffs opposed the measure.
“Statewide,” Gottlieb said, “gun control has likewise failed. In 2015, the first full year after I-594 was passed, the state reported 209 slayings, of which 141 involved firearms, according to FBI data. Last year, according to the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs, the state saw 302 murders, and their data shows 178 involving firearms. FBI data for 2019 shows 135 homicides involving firearms, so that’s quite a jump.”
“Instead of using this data to push for even harsher laws,” Gottlieb suggested, “it is time for the gun prohibition lobby, not just in Washington but across the country, to admit their agenda has failed. It’s time to scrap extremist gun control laws and try something else like supporting our police and locking up violent criminals.”
Gottlieb was an outspoken proponent of “Three Strikes” and “Hard Time for Armed Crime” laws 25 years ago. He opposed both gun control initiatives, insisting at the time that they would not fulfill expectations of reduced violent crime. Time and the data have proven him correct.
According to the Seattle Times, “People of color, especially young Black men, continue to be disproportionately affected by gun violence, as has been reported in previous years.”
Incredibly, Satterberg said during a Zoom press conference in which AmmoLand participated, his office doesn’t focus on the ethnicities of shooters in these cases.
The Seattle Times also noted that the bulk of information for his office’s report came from police agencies in Seattle, Tukwila, Kent, Auburn, Renton, Des Moines and Federal Way, and the King County Sheriff’s Office.
The rise in shootings and homicides comes at a time when Seattle is among the police agencies that have lost officers. At least 250 officers have left the Seattle department over the past 19 months.
“I’m concerned they’re stretched so very thin at this time when we need that kind of help both on the older cases, and these newer cases that are coming forward,” Satterberg told KIRO News.
One thing that has become evident is that more people in King County are arming themselves. Prior to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, King County reported 103,700 active concealed pistol licenses. That number plummeted during the pandemic because law enforcement agencies were not taking new applications, and apparently many people could not renew their existing licenses. At the end of April, the county reported 95,044 active CPLs, according to data from the state Department of Licensing.
But there has been a resurgence over the summer months and into the fall. By Sept. 30, more than 3,000 King County residents have renewed or obtained carry licenses, and the number is up to more than 98,000, of which roughly 20 percent are women.
There was no immediate reaction from Seattle-based anti-gunners.
RELATED:
- Concealed Carry Soaring; Over 21.5M Active Licenses, Permits, Says Report
- CCW Resurgence in WA as State Reports Spike in Murders
About Dave Workman
Dave Workman is a senior editor at TheGunMag.com and Liberty Park Press, author of multiple books on the Right to Keep & Bear Arms, and formerly an NRA-certified firearms instructor.
