Second Amendment Foundation Sues to Stop Washington Gun Control Initiative

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AFP

The Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) is suing to stop Washington initiative I-1639 from being allowed on the ballot this November.

The News Tribune reports I-1639 raises the minimum age for long gun purchases from 18 to 21, requires a special background check for “assault weapon” purchases, and requires perpetual checks on all gun owners, to keep the state aware of those who must forfeit their right to keep and bear arms.

Proponents of the I-1639 gathered roughly 360,000 signatures to get the initiative on the ballot, but SAF executive director Alan Gottlieb claims they used unclear language to do so.

According to the Tribune, Washington law requires a “full, true, and correct copy” of the initiative as proposed to be printed on the petition signed by signatories. However, “the court filing by attorney Shawn Newman contends the petition text doesn’t match official text provided by the state’s Code Reviser’s office since it lacks those page markups.”

In a press release sent to Breitbart News, Newman added, “The petitions for I-1639 have the proposed measure printed on the back of the sheets in such fine print that as to be unreadable…Use of fine print is unconscionable.” Newman said, “Due to the microscopic maze of fine print used by the initiative sponsors to disguise the actual language of the initiative on the back of their petitions, voters cannot be fully informed.”

SAF alerted Washington’s Secretary of State and the Washington Attorney General of the phraseology and “microscopic…fine print” used by gun control initiative proponents.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News, the host of the Breitbart podcast Bullets with AWR Hawkins, and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.

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