Bill would ban openly carried guns at demonstrations in Washington state
Against a backdrop of recent gun violence at protests in Olympia and across the U.S., two lawmakers in the Washington state Senate have introduced a bill to ban open carry of guns and other weapons at demonstrations and on the Capitol Campus.
Sen. Patty Kuderer, D-Bellevue, who prefiled the bill along with Sen. Mona Das, D-Kent, called it a commonsense approach to prevent tragedy during emotionally charged situations.
“It seems to me that this was a very commonsense approach to taking the tensions down,” Kuderer told McClatchy in a phone interview. “You don’t need a weapon to express your First Amendment rights, you need your voice.”
People have become more polarized in their political views in recent years, she said, referencing the deadly shootings at demonstrations in Kenosha, Wisconsin, armed protesters at the Michigan State Capitol, and other recent examples of people bringing weapons to protests.
When someone is carrying a weapon, they’re not going to have a conversation about the issues, she argued. It’s not about self-protection, she reasons, but intimidation.
“The potential for violence is just too great, and the potential for tragedy is just too great,” she said.
The bill will officially be introduced the first day of the 2021 session, which is Monday. If it were to pass, Kuderer said she fully expects it would be challenged as unconstitutional, but that legislators can place reasonable restrictions on rights.
“If it’s unconstitutional to open-carry at demonstrations, why isn’t it unconstitutional to prevent open-carry in courts?” she said. So far, she said arguments she’s heard in opposition to the bill have been personal, sometimes vulgar — not substantive in describing what’s truly a problem.
The proposal doesn’t apply to concealed carry for people with permits. The main reason for that, according to Kuderer, is a need for more time to look at whether it’s appropriate.
Senate Bill 5038, prefiled Dec. 24, adds open-carrying at demonstrations to a list of places where carrying weapons isn’t allowed, such as jails, courtrooms, and public mental health facilities.
It would ban knowingly open-carrying a firearm or other weapons while at a demonstration in a public space, defining “demonstration” as “conduct by one or more persons communicating or expressing views or grievances which has the effect, intent, or likelihood of attracting a crowd.” That includes marches, rallies, vigils, sit-ins, and picketing, according to the bill.
The proposal also would add a section to the law banning open-carry of weapons on state Capitol grounds, buildings on campus, state legislative offices, and locations of public legislative hearings or meetings while the hearing or meeting is occurring.
Anyone who violates that ban would be guilty of a gross misdemeanor, according to the bill.
People can currently open- or concealed-carry weapons on the Olympia campus under state law, as long as they comply with the state’s broader gun laws, a spokesperson for the Department of Enterprise Services confirmed.
Both openly carried and concealed weapons have been banned in public galleries in the Senate since 2017 by Lieutenant Governor’s order, Deputy Director of Senate Security Les Watson confirmed, and the same rules apply to public hearing rooms.
Openly carried weapons had been banned from both House and Senate public viewing areas and public hearing rooms at the Capitol a few years before that, according to previous reporting from The Associated Press.
The latest effort to ban openly carried weapons is not a reaction to recent clashes between protesters in Olympia that have escalated to gunfire, Kuderer said. Rather, she said she was looking at what’s happened over the last four years across the country.
She said she’d been working on this over the interim, long before plans for the mostly remote legislative session were known, and long before groups stated intentions to occupy the Legislative Building in protest to those plans.
There’s not an emergency clause in the bill currently, which if included would enable it to go into effect immediately after passage.
Late in the 2020 session, Democratic lawmakers in each chamber introduced bills to ban weapons on Capitol grounds and in buildings at the capitol, after an unpermitted pro-gun rally brought a crowd to campus, including many who were armed, according to Northwest News Network. Das and Kuderer were among sponsors of the Senate bill.
“I don’t think we should ever live in a country where legislation is done while looking down a barrel of a gun,” Kuderer said. “That’s inappropriate, that’s not democratic, that’s not the United States of America, and that’s certainly not Washington state.”
This story was originally published January 6, 2021 at 5:45 AM with the headline "Bill would ban openly carried guns at demonstrations in Washington state."
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