Enough with the Rambo cosplay. It’s time for WA to finally ban high-capacity magazines
Here we go again.
Last week, Democrats in the state Senate passed Senate Bill 5078 — which would prohibit the making, distribution and sale of firearm magazines holding more than 10 rounds. Passed on a party-line vote, it’s not the first time liberal lawmakers in Washington have attempted such a move. In 2020, a similar effort to ban the sale and transfer of high-capacity magazines stalled out, unceremoniously, thanks in large part to the calculated obstruction of Republicans.
Predictably, the passage of SB 5078 — which now heads to the House — already seems destined to inspire the same unsatisfying debate we’ve come to expect any time new legislation is proposed to limit the access people have to firearms and ammunition. While guns — and our uniquely American obsession with them — remain responsible for tens of thousands of deaths every year in the United States, for some reason we seem content to recite the same tired lines — and fall back on the same tired excuses — almost every time.
The result: nothing much changes — except the number of mass shootings and the number of active shooter drills our children are subjected to in school. The perceived God-given right to engage in Rambo cosplay trumps common sense legislation. The need to protect fantasies of one day heroically defending a suburban cul-de-sac outweighs our desire to protect those who needlessly lose their lives to gun violence every year.
It’s enough to make a reasonable person cynical, or — at the very least — mad as hell.
So will this time be any different? Perhaps, but Washington residents sick and tired of the status quo probably shouldn’t hold their breath. As Joseph O’Sullivan of the Seattle Times recently reported, during debate on the Senate floor prior to the passage of SB 5078, Republicans like Phil Fortunato of Auburn trotted out the usual list of well-rehearsed objections.
The bill would “jeopardize the safety of Washingtonians,” Fortunato argued, despite ample evidence that being armed to the teeth does not make you safer, and — in many cases — actually increases a person’s chances of being shot during an assault. Then again, attempts to respond to impassioned claims like Fortunato’s with data, research and reason are comically useless. We would all be better off acknowledging the gun debate is about people’s feelings, and nothing more. There’s not a study or a pie chart that’s going to sway anyone.
Others, like Rep. Jim Walsh, R-Aberdeen, questioned whether the proposed legislation would work, describing the bill as driven more “by emotion than reason.”
“It’s very easy to get around the restraints it would put on individuals,” Walsh suggested.
It’s an interesting point, at least until you consider the obvious: anything is better than nothing, unless nothing is your goal. And yes, people are emotional, because year after year we watch our elected leaders have the same meaningless debate while the toll gun violence takes on our communities continues to mount.
All that leaves are state Democrats, who it’s worth remembering hold solid majorities in the House and Senate, not to mention the Governor’s mansion and the Attorney General’s office. While the roadblocks and National Rifle Association talking points thrown up by Republicans are tiresome — and there have been victories at the ballot box and the Legislature, like last year’s ban on open carry at the Capitol campus and organized protests — there should be a special level of contempt reserved for progressives who all too often abandon ship when the political waters gets choppy. Much like attempts to ban high-capacity magazines, efforts to ban assault weapons have also regularly gone nowhere in Washington.
Hours before SB 5078 passed, Speaker of the House Laurie Jinkins of Tacoma told reporters that there’s “never a harmful year to do bills on gun safety.”
At the same time, Jinkins, a Democrat, all but acknowledged the potential political reality — unable to commit to giving the bill a floor vote.
It was yet another cold reminder that if something is actually going to change … something needs to change.
Forgive me if I’m not brimming with optimism.
This story was originally published February 14, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
