Voters have passed a measure to expand background checks on weapon deals and transfers in Washington state.
I-594 passed with almost 60 percent voting in support, 40 percent contradicted, with a little more than 870,000 votes tallied.
I-594 acquired more than $10 million, including donations from figures like Bill Gates and Michael Bloomberg. It looks to extend the state’s present background check laws to require checks on private transactions, including private deals at firearm shows.
With a little more than one million votes numbered, I-591 was trailing 45-55 percent.
I-591 would keep any such extension from happening, precluding government orgs from directing any checks past the national standard, which obliges the checks for deals or transfers by authorized merchants yet not for buys from private dealers. It likewise would disallow the confiscation of weapons without due process.
No other state has a weapon related measure on the poll this year, and a huge number of dollars have been pouring into the state, for the most part in backing of extending background checks.
The National Rifle Association raised nearly half a million dollars to fight the expansion measure, but did not endorse I-591, which spent just over a million dollars on its campaign. The anti-expansion measure also seeks to prohibit confiscation of firearms without due process.
Six states – California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, New York, Rhode Island – in addition to Washington, D.C., require a universal background checks for all deals and transfers of guns, as indicated by the National Conference of State Legislatures. Different states have differing laws on extension past what government law obliges, including Oregon, which requires a background check for buys at weapon shows.
The FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System handled more than 560,000 gun background checks in Washington state a year ago, and has prepared more than 346,000 in the middle of January and the end of September of this current year, according to the system’s online report.