HB 1143 - Hearing notice on requiring a permit to buy guns

E2SHB 1143, titled AN ACT Relating to enhancing requirements for the purchase or transfer of firearms by requiring a permit to purchase firearms, firearms safety training, and a 10-day waiting period, prohibiting firearms transfers prior to completion of a background check, and updating and creating consistency in firearms transfer and background check procedures, has been scheduled for a public hearing by the Senate Committee on Law & Justice.

Date and Time: 03/23/2023 8:00AM (Subject to change by the Legislature.)  Emailed remarks must be made before the meeting convenes. 
The meeting will held in J.A. Cherberg Building, Senate Hearing Rm 4 and Virtual, Olympia, WA

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All of the conditions set forth in HB 1142 violate the same part of Washington's constitution.

The Washington State Constitutions states in Article 1, Section 24, "The right of the individual citizen to bear arms in defense of himself, or the state, shall not be impaired, but nothing in this section shall be construed as authorizing individuals or corporations to organize, maintain or employ an armed body of men."  That is, you have the right to be armed to defend yourself or the state, but cannot form a personal army.

The WA Constitution is explicit.  Our right to be armed is to defend self or state.  This bill will severely impede the ability to self defense.  How can the legislature justify forcing a person to wait 10 days when the need to be armed is acute.   But criminals do not follow the law, so the legislation will not affect them.

HB 1142 will enable criminal predation against the unarmed citizen by impeding the citizen's right to become armed in self-defense.  Neglecting the citizen's need to self-defense is consistent with the leftist agenda to expose the people to criminal violence -- the apparent goal of Democrat run cities like Seattle defunding their police force.

• Requiring a permit to purchase a firearm certainly infringes on the right to be armed.  How can a right be limited by government license? 
• Requiring firearms safety training is another way to prolong the delay for an innocent civilian in the need of of armed self-defense.armed.
  
• The 10-day waiting period (or any waiting period) is explicitly to impede the civil right of citizens' self-defense.

The requirement that firearms transfers get a background check is another way of delaying the process of self-defense.  Current law requires a gun merchant do a background check through the existing National Instant Check System.  The NICS system is nearly instant, and has stopped a few bad cookies from getting guns.  The system has also mistakenly prohibited some innocent citizens from being armed.  That is a reason to improve the system, not expand the defective system's control.

Oppose HB 1142

Thank you

You can bulk email the Senate Committee on Law & Justice members.  Here are the email addresses:

Manka.Dhingra@leg.wa.gov; patty.kuderer@leg.wa.gov;  jamie.pedersen@leg.wa.gov; SALOMON_JE@leg.wa.gov; yasmin.trudeau@leg.wa.gov; javier.valdez@leg.wa.gov;

keith.wagoner@leg.wa.gov;  lynda.wilson@leg.wa.gov; Nikki.Torres@leg.wa.gov; mike.padden@leg.wa.gov ; jim.mccune@leg.wa.gov 

You can also send voting instructions to your own district Senator by clicking on https://app.leg.wa.gov/pbc/bill/1143.