This WA state gun bill is attack on constitutional rights, says Herald letter writer | Opinion

Gun purchase bill violates our rights

House Bill 1143, concerning requirements for the purchase or transfer of firearms, is nothing but a totalitarian attack on our constitutional rights in my opinion. This bill creates a process mandating training and a background check to purchase a firearm, a process which includes yet another background check.

Washington has failed to implement the state background check process mandated in 2020. Now state government wants to reinforce that failed requirement while also requiring training while not supplying any such training in our public schools. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled government cannot require a permit to exercise a right, yet Washington seems to think it can override the U.S. Supreme Court. We could also discuss how such requirements have failed to reduce crime in the past.

And, as is common in the state Legislature, bills like this are frequently acted upon in the wee hours of the night with little to no advance publicity. I used to think our government was “Government of the people, by the people, for the people,” but have since learned it’s all about what the governor and attorney general want, even if it takes them most of a decade to railroad such attacks on our rights into place.

Bob Birney, Richland

Remember U.S. is a nation of laws

I understand the frustration that parents had with the COVID-19 mask mandate, especially considering how much undisciplined children struggled with wearing a face covering. For many children, wearing a mask was one of the most difficult things they had ever experienced. That being said, the fact of the matter is that the United States of America is not a lawless anarchist state. Laws exist for a reason and elected officials who break the law must be removed from their offices.

Even for the people who wanted mask mandates removed, what happens if an organized movement changes the political landscape of the school board to lean towards politics you disagree with? If the Richland School Board had broken the rules of the office in order to hang up a pride flag, I suspect the people who are opposed to the board recall would react differently. I understand that it’s incredibly tempting to ignore order and reason to achieve political ends. However, there are plenty of individuals who share the politics of the Richland School Board with the integrity and discretion Richland deserves.

Ekelemchi Okemgbo, Richland

WSP explanation concerns reader

Re: “Affidavit: Troopers tried four times to stop driver accused of killing two children in I-82 crash.” (Tri-City Herald, March 10).

According to the article, a Washington State Patrol spokesperson said troopers couldn’t pursue the driver “because he was only suspected of speeding, and a 2021 state law bars high-speed pursuits unless there is probable cause he was a suspect in a violent crime or drunken driving.”

That same law (RCW 10.116.060) gives police the authority to conduct a pursuit when, “The person poses an imminent threat to the safety of others and the safety risks of failing to apprehend or identify the person are considered to be greater than the safety risks of the vehicular pursuit under the circumstances.”

The driver was reportedly speeding up to 120 mph, weaving through traffic, passing on shoulders and between cars and turning his headlights off. How does that not qualify as an imminent threat to the safety of others?

I sincerely hope the reason the police elected not to pursue was because they believed that such a pursuit would be the greater threat.

If that’s the case, I respect their decision, but their use of this tragedy to campaign against a law they don’t like is reprehensible.

Tim Taylor, Richland