As Democrat lawmakers used their majority to pass an absurd anti-gun bill last year, they insulted veterans in the process.
Senate Bill 5030 bans the open carry of firearms at both public demonstrations and on state capitol grounds in Olympia. Democrats argued that right-wing activists brought guns to protests or to the state capitol to intimidate political adversaries. There’s still no legislation targeting Antifa’s use of firearms, knives, rocks, and Molotov cocktails while masked during riots and rallies.
But the bill was so hastily passed and ill-considered, it ended up banning the use of the 21-gun salute on capitol grounds.
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Banning 21-gun salute
The 21-gun salute is a long-held military tradition. It can be used to honor members of the military.
“I got invited to attend the 71st anniversary of the Korean War,” State Senator Chris Gildon (D-Puyallup) told the Jason Rantz Show on KTTH. “And the organizers were setting up the event on the capitol campus. And during all of the planning, they got a hold of me, and they said, ‘Chris, we’re not allowed to do a 21-gun salute because of that bill that passed last year.’”
While the legislation offers an exception for law enforcement, Gildon notes “there’s no exception in the bill for military rifle honor ceremony.”
“And so they weren’t allowed to do it. They were deeply disheartened. Because, you know, these Korean War veterans, they are getting older, and we’re not going to have too many more years to be able to honor them properly. And so they were just very sad,” Gildon added.
Why no exception?
Had the legislature spent time discussing this bill, they could have come up with some better carve-out language. But Democrats used activist momentum after the death of George Floyd to push as much as they could. And while they were silent on Antifa violence, they happily pretended gun-supporters posed a threat at rallies.
Gildon thinks it’ll be relatively easy to pass a fix. I’m not so sure I believe that. You have Seattle Democrats who would like to ban all guns. Some claim the mere presence of a gun is triggering. And would this small fix get any priority during a session that already demands fixes to Governor Jay Inslee’s abuse of emergency powers, or the anti-police bills that must be amended? It seems unlikely.
State Senator Patty Kuderer (D-Bellevue) is the bill’s sponsor. Her office did not respond to a request for comment on whether or not she’d support a fix to the bill. Recently, however, she said she was looking at a bill to make it easier for cities to ban guns.
Veterans — and their supporters — hoping Democrats will make a small concession as they try to kill our right to bear arms shouldn’t hold their breath.
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