Tagged: gun control

The National Rifle Association (NRA) is opposed to a proposed state law (House Bill 1588) that would require universal background checks for gun purchases in Washington state.

Supporters aim to prevent more convicted felons from getting their hands on guns that can currently be purchased without a background check though private sales. The NRA says felons would still get guns though black-market sales and other avenues.

In President Obama’s State of the Union Address, he called on Congress to pass new gun control legislation. He declared that “in the two months since Newtown, more than a thousand birthdays, graduations and anniversaries have been stolen from our lives by a bullet from a gun."

According to the most recent report on gun deaths by the Center for Disease control, two-thirds of all US gun deaths in 2010 were suicides. 

Despite recent disagreements over gun control proposals in the state legislature, a few Democrats and Republicans are coming together to support one bill that would require background checks for all firearms transactions in Washington.

Hundreds of people came out on a chilly Saturday morning to exchange their guns for $100 and $200 Amazon.com gift cards in the first guy buyback event held in Seattle in 20 years. People stood in line holding rifles in camouflage cases and shot guns wrapped in blankets among other things. Traffic clogged up city streets near the parking lot where the event took place.