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BELLEVUE, WA – A new report released Monday by the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs (WASPC) offers ample evidence that two extremist gun control initiatives, along with additional legislation pushed by Democrat lawmakers has failed miserably, and should be repealed, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today.

“WASPC data released Monday showing a 96 percent increase in homicides since 2019 is damning proof that billionaire-backed gun control measures were, as we predicted, false pie-in-the-sky promises,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “Passage of Initiative 594 in 2014 and I-1639 in 2018 have accomplished nothing other than to create massive impairments, which we believe are unconstitutional, for law-abiding Washington citizens.

“While the billionaires who bankrolled both initiatives were saying these measures would reduce crime,” he recalled, “we were telling people the truth, and the WASPC report vindicates our arguments. WASPC says last year’s 394 murders is the highest number of homicides recorded by the group since 1980.

“And we’re more than one year out from passage of a ban on so-called ‘large-capacity magazines,’ which was a pet project of Democrat Attorney General Bob Ferguson,” Gottlieb added. “Guess what, murders went up last year by 16.6 percent over 2021.

“At this point,” Gottlieb said, “it is fair to ask what good has any of these laws accomplished? These gun control measures have only helped make people less safe, and it should be clear to voters they’ve been deceived by the gun prohibition lobby, which will no doubt try to spin the new report to suggest even stricter measures are necessary.

“In private business,” he added, “if something repeatedly doesn’t work, the plan is scrapped and the company tries something else. If the people responsible refuse to let go, they might be fired. But the anti-gun crowd invariably doubles down, only making things worse. It is time to hold these people accountable, and for the Legislature to acknowledge that gun control extremism has been an abject failure. Restrictions created by I-594 and I-1639 can legally be repealed, along with Ferguson’s 2022 ban on magazines and this year’s ban on so-called ‘assault weapons.’ Washington citizens deserve better and it is time for a change of direction.”