OLYMPIA — You can openly carry a firearm in Washington, though places to do so legally are disappearing.<\/p>\n
Courtrooms, jails, schools and airports have long been off-limits. A few months ago a new law added the campus of the state Capitol to the list. It also banned open-carry at or near public rallies and demonstrations.<\/p>\n
Majority Democrats in the House and Senate, who pushed through that law, are working this session to extend prohibitions on open-carry to, in one lawmaker’s words, “wherever democracy takes place.”<\/p>\n
Their approaches are noticeably different.<\/p>\n
In the House, Democrats are pushing House Bill 1630<\/a> to bar firearms and other dangerous weapons from places where government bodies meet, like city councils, county councils and school boards. Weapons also would be barred from election offices, ballot counting facilities and voting centers, and election officials would be required to post signs detailing the restriction.<\/p>\n Law enforcement officers would be exempt — private security personnel, as well, if they’ve completed firearm training. A person licensed to carry a concealed weapon could have a gun in buildings and facilities where meetings are taking place. Even they could not have the weapon on them in areas where ballot counting is occurring.<\/p>\n “I would prefer us as a state to be clear in our intention that these are safe places and they are free of weapons,” said Rep. April Berg, D-Mill Creek. Those locations where democracy takes place “do not need weapons,” she said.<\/p>\n Berg authored a separate bill<\/a> to keep guns out of election centers. She amended it into HB 1630, which awaits action in the House Rules Committee.<\/p>\n Their Senate counterparts are looking to allow cities, towns, counties and other municipalities to craft their own open-carry restrictions beyond statewide rules. Senate Bill 5568<\/a> would modify current law, which preempts local governments from doing so.<\/p>\n That legislation moved out of the Senate Law and Justice Committee Thursday on a party-line vote. It awaits action in the Senate Rules Committee<\/p>\n Sen. Patty Kuderer, D-Bellevue, the prime sponsor, said local elected officials sought the option to exceed state restrictions.<\/p>\n Both bills are in response to what Democrats say has been a dangerous uptick in tense confrontations at public meetings fueled by national politics, pandemic policies and instruction of social theories. It’s much the same argument made last session, when they debated and passed the ban on open-carry at the Capitol and at public demonstrations.<\/p>\n “If you feel a need to bring a weapon to a school board meeting … what is the point, if not to intimidate? It’s intended to be intimidating,” Kuderer said. She doesn’t view the House bill to be competition. “If doing something statewide is preferred, I am going to vote for that happily.”<\/p>\n