Activists defy new Washington gun law to demonstrate its unenforceability

Defying the recently-passed Washington State Initiative 594 requiring background checks on gun sales, videographer and citizen journalist “LaughingAtLiberals” and an unidentified accomplice made a point of defying the law as soon as it became effective Thursday. To document the sale, the transaction was recorded and posted on You Tube.

Screenshot: LaughingAtLiberals

The new law, which took effect at midnight, was heavily backed by Michael Bloomberg’s “Everytown” effort, with additional financing from billionaires like Microsoft’s Bill Gates. In spite of campaign rhetoric that such measures are supported by 90 percent of the populace, even a solid “blue state” like Washington, where a massively-funded campaign war chest and resultant advertising dwarfed opposition financing, only passed the initiative with just under 60 percent of the vote.

“Washington's I594 is now in effect, but LAL doesn't care, as he commits a blatant violation of the new law by not conducting a background check to transfer a firearm,” the video description explains. It begins at 11:50 p.m. Wednesday, seconds before the initiative becomes enforceable law.
At 12:00 a.m., “LAL” announces it is December 4, 2014, He then proceeds to explain that he is in Vancouver, and about to become the first citizen to violate the new law by “purchas[ing] a gun from a buddy of mine without going through the background check.”
Further explaining he and the seller are not exempt from background check requirements, the physical transfer of a “Glock Model 22” for “a wad of cash” is then completed. What’s not clear is if there is anything authorities can do about it.
Enough advance care has been placed into what would be shown and admitted to on camera to make pinning an actual violation of law on specific individuals problematic, if not impossible. That said, the purpose of the video appears to be not to test the law in court, but to demonstrate how it is utterly useless at preventing “undocumented” transfers.
Showing they can be done without repercussions as a staged act of civil disobedience demonstrates that the entire justification behind I-594, “making sure that firearms don’t get into the hands of dangerous people who shouldn't have them,” is a premise unsupported by reality. An edict that won't stop peaceable rights advocates from making a point is hardly likely to deter predatory criminals from making victims.
Those behind the effort in Washington, who are now relentlessly attempting to finance and impose similar decrees in states like Nevada and beyond, are well aware of that. As such, it makes their true motives an important and legitimate subject for unbiased media inquiry and investigation.

http://www.examiner.com/article/activists-defy-new-washington-gun-law-to-demonstrate-its-unenforceability?CID=examiner_alerts_article