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Dear Friends and Neighbors,
We are now just past the halfway point in the 2025 legislative session. Currently, we’re through the first part of the committee process and now spend our days (and late into the nights on several occasions) debating, amending, and voting on legislation. Boy, is there a LOT of bad bills passing this session. Legislation that will increase the cost of health care, housing, energy, food and more. The old axiom, “Stuff Ain’t Free,” is NOT something adhered to around Olympia.
As I mentioned in last week’s legislative update, don’t forget to lend your voice to our effort to stop some of these bad bills. While they may make it through the House, they still have to go through the committee and then the floor process over in the Senate, and vice versa for Senate bills. It’s not too late to kill a bad bill or at least make it a little better by amending it if public pressure mounts! Click here, or the banner above.
Gun rights! – We are debating this bill tonight!
House Bill 1163 would require individuals to obtain a permit to purchase firearms, complete a certified firearm safety training program, and undergo enhanced background checks through the Washington State Patrol before acquiring a firearm.
It also imposes new training requirements for concealed pistol licenses (CPLs), mandates annual eligibility verification for permit and CPL holders, and establishes statewide recordkeeping and reporting requirements for firearm sales and transfers. Additionally, the bill increases security and compliance obligations for firearm dealers, including inventory tracking, surveillance systems, and stricter employee background checks.
This is a BAD bill! – Requiring a permit to purchase a firearm imposes unnecessary government restriction on law-abiding citizens exercising their constitutional right to bear arms. The extensive recordkeeping requirements and annual verification of firearm permit holders effectively create a de facto gun registry, which is illegal at the federal level.
In addition, many people in rural areas may struggle to access state-certified training programs (How many programs are there now? How many will be required to fulfill ALL gun owners’ needs? Where will these classes be located? How much will they cost?), adding unfair barriers to rural firearms ownership.
As we all know, THE BAD GUYS DON’T FOLLOW LAWS IN THE FIRST PLACE! Adding another layer of bureaucracy (a permit to purchase a gun?), attacking law-abiding gun owners (CPL holders rarely – if ever – commit gun crimes!), creating firearms registries (against federal law), will NOT reduce gun crime. However, holding criminals accountable, not letting them out early and often, and enforcing the laws we already have on the books might be a good start!
As I write this, we are hearing this is a bill that will come up for debate TONIGHT! If your cable or satellite provider includes TVW, I encourage you to watch the debate and see what House Democrats think of our Second Amendment rights. Or you can watch it online on TVW or check out our livestream on our YouTube channel. You can also check out our Facebook or X pages for updates throughout the evening.
We don’t know what time the debate will start (we’re hearing midnight?), but it’s entirely possible that we’ll see the sunrise early tomorrow morning before we’re done. We will fight as hard as we can to amend or kill the bill. And, if you’re reading this AFTER tonight (Friday night), again I encourage you to go to our bad bills page and leave comments and/or sign up to testify when it goes through the Senate. Let your voice be heard, folks!
Virtual Town Hall – Don’t forget to join us in two weeks!
Thank you for reading my legislative update. I hope you are able to tune-in to tonight’s debate. As always, contact my office with questions or concerns. It is a pleasure to serve you in Olympia.
Sincerely,
Joe Schmick
