BELLEVUE, WA – Evergreen State gun owners are urged to contact their state senator, and if possible, plan to attend a hearing on Senate Bill 6396, the proposed ban on so-called “assault weapons” sponsored by Senators Adam Kline and Jeanne Kohl-Welles.

The public hearing is scheduled Tuesday, Jan. 26 at 10 a.m. in Hearing Room 1 of the John A. Cherberg Senate Office building, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms learned Thursday.

“This is an unnecessary, and frankly useless, proposal that is aimed at the wrong people, and will accomplish nothing to reduce crime or prevent tragedies such as the murder of four Lakewood police officers last November,” said CCRKBA Legislative Director Joe Waldron. “It is important for all Washington State gun owners to contact their state senator on this issue.”

Waldron noted that the Legislative Hotline number is 1-800-562-6000.

“Messages to state senators should be brief, polite and on point,” Waldron added. “Gun owners should remind members of the Senate that none of the six police officers fatally shot in the line of duty last year were killed with a so-called ‘assault weapon.’

“Worse, still,” he continued, “are provisions that would allow warrantless searches of a citizen’s home to determine whether their semiautomatic sport-utility rifles are being properly stored. While there are no registration requirements in this bill, one is left to wonder how sheriff’s deputies would know which homes to visit without some roster of gun owners.

“This is an insidious proposal,” Waldron concluded, “that smacks of ‘first-step’ theatrics. The ultimate goal of the bill’s sponsors is to register, and eventually eliminate, ownership of sport-utility rifles. Gun owners should stop this now.”