KNDO/KNDU Tri-Cities, Yakima, WA | Public hearings for gun ban bill

Public hearings for gun ban bill

OLYMPIA, Wash;--We told you yesterday about the bill in legislature that would ban certain assault weapons in Washington. Today, a Senate Judiciary Committee held a public hearing to hear what people on both sides of this issue had to say.

Speakers in support of the bill included the president of the Washington Ceasefire group and a mother whose son was killed by a man with an assault weapon earlier this year. Both said that if the bill doesn't pass, more restrictions must be made either way, to keep children and police officers safe. 

The opposition says the bill still doesn't distinguish between legal semi-automatic guns and illegal ones.

"You can ban all semi-automatic firearms, or you can ban none of them. But if you try to carve out some arbitrary subset, what you're going to end up with is a confusing and utterly ineffective nightmare of law and regulation," says Brian Judy of the National Rifle Association.

Owners of guns considered illegal in this bill would be subject to sheriff inspections of their weapons every year, which is the regulation nightmare Judy is referring to. Once again, this was just a public hearing, voting on the bill will happen after it is presented to both the senate and the house.