OLYMPIA — A push to curb gun violence gained momentum Jan. 27 when a Democrat-controlled House committee advanced bills to ban the sale of assault weapons and require people to complete a safety training course before they are allowed to buy a firearm.<\/p>\n
“While this bill will not cure the scourge that is happening across this country, it is part of the solution,” Rep. Strom Peterson, D-Edmonds, said before the committee vote on the assault weapons bill. “It will keep our communities safe.”<\/p>\n
He has sponsored the legislation for seven years, driven by the memory of three people slain at a Mukilteo house party in 2016<\/a> by a man armed with an AR-15-style semiautomatic weapon that would be banned under the bill.<\/p>\n “It’s hugely impactful in the 21st District I represent because of that shooting,” he said.<\/p>\n Attorney General Bob Ferguson started requesting the prohibition in 2017.<\/p>\n “For the first time in seven legislative sessions, our proposed ban on the sale of assault weapons passed out of committee today,” he said. “This is a very positive first step to help keep our communities safer. We have a long road to get this to the governor’s desk. We will push hard to make this happen, because this legislation will save lives.”<\/p>\n Peterson senses a different mood this session.<\/p>\n “The makeup of our caucus is more receptive to common sense gun legislation,” he said following the vote.<\/p>\n Mass shootings at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, an LGBTQ club in Colorado Springs last year and in California this month are on his colleagues’ minds. Passage last year of a new state law banning high-capacity ammunition magazines showed they can pass tough policies.<\/p>\n The two measures passed Jan. 27 in the House Civil Rights & Judiciary Committee received no Republican votes.<\/p>\n Those bills, along with one allowing people to sue gun manufacturers that passed a Senate panel, are major pieces of the agenda Gov. Jay Inslee, Attorney General Bob Ferguson and Democratic lawmakers are pursuing this session.<\/p>\n There’s been a measurable rise in incidents involving guns in Washington since the start of the pandemic. Each year between 2017 and 2021, an average of 852 people were killed by firearms, rising to 896 in 2021, according to data compiled by Inslee’s staff<\/a>.<\/p>\n