When gun owners consider who to support, and who to oppose politically, it is a good idea to find out whether a candidate is backed by the gun prohibition lobby or a rights advocacy group, and the Seattle-based Alliance for Gun Responsibility just made that easy for the tens of thousands of gun owners in the Jet City city.
The elitist billionaire-supported gun control group has endorsed former state legislator Jessyn Farrell. She quit her job as a state lawmaker in June, where she was in her third term, to join a field of candidates that is saturated with liberals.
According to Alliance CEO Renee Hopkins, “Farrell has a strong history working on gun violence prevention efforts in the state Legislature. She sponsored a total of eight gun responsibility bills during the past two legislative sessions and has emerged as a proven and strategic leader in gun violence prevention.”
The Seattle native is an attorney, has a family, and this past session was co-sponsor of legislation aimed at so-called “assault weapons” and original capacity magazines.
Farrell likes to promote “robust dialogue” about certain issues. She used the term twice during a debate of “top tier” candidates sponsored by KING 5, the local NBC affiliate. Once she was talking about affordable housing and the other time she was talking about “safe injection sites” for drug users. See the transcript here.
She supports a safe injection site, with conditions, she explained during the debate. MyNorthwest.com is reporting that opponents of such sites, the backers of Initiative 27 are “alleging the King County department of health actively worked to hamper their efforts and used public funds to do it, violating state law.”
At one point during that debate, Farrell stated, “I think one of the values that we hold as a city is that we should be a place that is welcoming and inclusive of everyone.”
Does that include people who own firearms? Lots of them live in the Seattle area. There are more than 100,900 people in the county with concealed pistol licenses, including 79,000 men and 21,000 women.
It’s pretty certain none of them are impressed with the Seattle “gun violence tax,” which appears to have collected a whole lot less than originally forecast by proponents, and considering recent headlines, hasn’t prevented or even curbed firearms-related violence.
She thinks embattled Seattle Mayor Ed Murray, a perennial anti-gunner and liberal Democrat, should resign. Not only did Murray quickly sign the gun tax two years ago, back when he was in the State Senate, he sponsored “assault weapons” ban legislation that would have allowed warrantless searches of gun owners’ homes.
Farrell is in a crowded race, which may translate to a quick end to her political aspirations. It remains to be seen whether an endorsement from a gun control group will help or hinder those aspirations.
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