Local News

After months of collection efforts, supporters and opponents of expanded background checks for gun sales appear to have come up with about the same number of signatures — and it’s more than enough to qualify both for the ballot. A spokesman for Initiative 594, which would require the checks for all sales, said supporters will submit…

A national Second Amendment group based in Bellevue has decided to sponsor “Guns Save Lives Day” on Dec. 14 — the anniversary of last year’s mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn. The 650,000-member Second Amendment Foundation, which announced the event Thursday with the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms…

Washington state supporters of expanded background checks for gun sales state have won an early skirmish in a long battle with Second Amendment activists that’s expected to end with dueling initiatives on the November 2014 ballot. The background-check supporters beat back two court challengers to the wording of what will appear on the ballot with their…

State faith leaders and gun violence victims on Tuesday filed an initiative proposal that would require background checks for almost all firearms sales and transfers, taking the first step in what is expected to be a hotly contested push for stronger gun laws. Supporters, who have already raised more than $1 million for their campaign,…

A state gun-control group is putting advertisements inside and outside of dozens of King County Metro Transit buses, urging residents to “think twice about having a gun in your home.” But the ads, paid for by Washington Ceasefire, were rejected by transit agencies in Snohomish and Pierce counties, said the group’s board president, Ralph Fascitelli. In addition…

Weeks after defeat in the state Legislature and U.S. Congress, local gun-control advocates announced Monday that they’re taking their case to the people. “We are here today to ask our elected officials why they have failed us,” said the Rev. Sandy Brown of Seattle’s First United Method Church, who was flanked by faith leaders, elected officials…

OLYMPIA — Democrats fumed Wednesday afternoon after the Republican-run state Senate declined to vote on a bipartisan gun-control bill before a key legislative deadline. State Rep. Roger Goodman, who sponsored the bill, said he and others were “seething with anger” after hearing the measure would not get a vote before the 5 p.m. cutoff, likely ending…

OLYMPIA — A key deadline came and went here on Wednesday afternoon, taking with it an opportunity many saw as this session’s best chance for expanding background checks for gun sales. House Bill 1588, a much-discussed priority of gun-control advocates, did not come up for a vote in the state House before 5 p.m., the cutoff…

OLYMPIA — Gun-control advocates in the state House conceded defeat Tuesday night on their top priority: a high-profile bill to require background checks for all gun sales. While cautioning that nothing is ever truly dead in Olympia, bill sponsor Jamie Pedersen said “it does not appear that we’re going to make it there.” “I always thought this…

OLYMPIA — Supporters of a bill to require background checks for all gun sales added a referendum clause to the proposal Tuesday morning in a last-minute bid to gain support in the state House. Bill sponsor Jamie Pedersen said he believes he has the votes to pass House Bill 1588 this afternoon with the…