And now, a county government in Washington state jumped in to copycat the plan on a local level.
King County Executive Dow Constantine has the powerful backing of a billionaire-supported gun prohibition group based in Seattle. With that support, he announced the formation of a “Regional Office of Gun Violence Prevention” bankrolled by $13.5 million in startup funding.
The county executive’s office said that the taxpayer dollars will fund “community violence intervention” in particular areas.
Last week, Constantine held a press conference during which he detailed the formation of the group. He was supported by Sheriff Patti Cole-Tindall, one of his appointees, who rattled off the upward trend in violent crime in the region.
She declared that “shots fired incidents increased 17%. The number of shooting victims jumped 55%. Most shockingly, the number of fatal shooting victims has skyrocketed, up 76%.”
Seattle and King County’s crime figures mirror those in major cities across the U.S. They also reflect a sharp upward trend in the state, which has strict gun control laws and is pushing for more.
According to the Alliance for Gun Responsibility, a prominent anti-gun outfit, Washington had 172 homicides in 2014 according to the FBI Uniform Crime Report. But the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs reports the number leapt to 394 in 2022.
No one contends that nothing should be done to combat the violent crime surge in Washington.
But this new office will only be an official manifestation of anti-firearms organizations that ignore the criminals who carry out the violent attacks. It will not produce well-funded proposals to crack down on those perpetrating the violence.
Instead, it will parrot the tired mantra of stripping away gun rights from law-abiding citizens that will not make a dent in criminal activity. And there’s already too much of that ridiculousness going around.
