Washington State is a national leader in the gun violence prevention movement.
When the Alliance for Gun Responsibility formed in 2013, the Giffords Law Center gave Washington State a “C” grade for our gun laws. Five years later, our grade rose to a “B+” and our state now ranks 10th in the country for commonsense gun laws.
Our improvement is primarily the result of three successful gun violence prevention ballot initiatives. When lawmakers in Olympia failed to act, Washington voters stepped up. Most recently, I-1639 passed with nearly 60% of the vote and was the ONLY gun violence prevention initiative to appear on the 2018 ballot nationwide.
We have also seen candidates begin to embrace commonsense gun reform. Our PAC, the Alliance for Gun Responsibility Victory Fund, has endorsed more and more candidates over the years. Most of these candidates run on gun violence prevention and win. In 2019, we welcomed the first gun sense majority legislature to Olympia.
But there is still work to be done.
In Washington State:
- A person is killed with a gun every 14 hours.
- More people are killed with guns than die in car accidents.
- Nearly half of all suicides are from firearms.
- Firearms are the second leading cause of fatal injury for children.
- Nearly half of gun owners do not lock up their guns.
What’s Next?
We will continue to push for commonsense gun violence prevention policies in Washington State until preventable gun deaths are a thing of the past.