Legislature needs to listen to us and enact stronger gun laws

Published 1:30 am Monday, January 23, 2017

The Herald Editorial Board is correct: Washingtonians want stronger gun laws. (Jan. 12, “Editorial: If lawmakers won’t adopt gun safety bills, put them to voters.”) But it isn’t the voters who need to pass them. Washington voters have done our job. In 2014, my niece Veronika was shot and killed near the campus of UC Santa Barbara, and I joined an ever-growing group of gun violence survivors. Out of the tragedy, I decided to turn to action and to advocate for gun laws that will help save lives. Since then, Washington has led the nation and passed gun policies at the ballot; in 2014, Initiative 594 won 59 percent of the vote and just this past November Initiative 1491 won 69 percent of the vote. Those votes should let the Legislature know where we stand, and that we support gun violence prevention. Now it is time for the Legislature to act and to help make our communities safer places.

This year, they should pass laws Washingtonians want in our state. They should act to keep dangerous assault weapons, those designed to kill, out of the hands of dangerous people. And they should take action to make sure that people who store guns irresponsibly can be held criminally liable if those fall into the wrong hands, like those of a child. Those are both common sense, potentially life-saving policies which could make a real difference in our state.

Gun violence is preventable. But our legislators must show that they are as committed to saving lives as their constituents.

Jane Weiss

Snohomish