EDITOR’S NOTE: This story has been corrected to show that it was Justice Antonin Scalia who said the Second Amendment right “is not unlimited” in a ruling that struck down a Washington, D.C. law that banned handguns. He was misidentified in the original story.
By Paul Gottlieb
Special to the Peninsula Daily News
OLYMPIA — Democratic state Sen. Kevin Van De Wege of Port Angeles broke with his party on an assault weapons ban strongly supported by Democrats, which Gov. Jay Inslee, also a Democrat, has vowed to sign.
The prohibition outlined in Substitute Senate Bill 1240 was finalized, largely along party line votes, 28-21 Tuesday in the Senate with Van De Wege the lone Democratic no vote.
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It was approved 56-42 Wednesday in the House.
Every Republican in both chambers voted against the prohibition, in keeping with statewide sentiment.
Van De Wege, who served 10 years in the House, including as Democratic majority whip, and the past four years in the Senate, was the lone senator to vote against the bill.
He was joined by Democratic Reps. Clyde Shavers of Oak Harbor and Alicia Rule of Blaine, the lone Democratic no votes in the House.
Van De Wege was comfortable being an outlier.
“It doesn’t bother me at all, doesn’t bother me in the least,” said the senator who represents Legislative District 24, which covers Clallam and Jefferson counties and part of Grays Harbor County.
A few factors led to his no vote, he said.
One is 1240’s emergency clause, making the ban take effect immediately after Inslee signs the law and which was employed to avoid a voter referendum.
“The only reason the referendum is not there is to squelch the voice of the people,” Van De Wege said.
Support for a ban is strong in Washington state but weakening nationally.
A WA Poll of adults statewide in July on an assault weapons ban was sponsored by the University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public, Washington State University’s Murrow College of Communication, KING 5 and The Seattle Times.
It showed 61 percent overall support and 34 percent opposition. Ninety percent of Democrats supported a ban while 62 percent of Republicans were opposed.
A June poll conducted by Public Policy Polling for the Redmond-based Northwest Progressive Institute and cited by the Attorney General’s Office — Attorney General Bob Ferguson also asked for the prohibition — found 56 percent of Washingtonians “strongly support” an assault weapons ban.
Views nationwide appear to be going in the other direction.
A Feb. 6 ABC News/Washington Post poll found 51 percent of respondents opposed and 47 percent favored a ban, a 9-point drop since 2019 “confirming other data” (langerresearch.com).
Reps. Steve Tharinger of Port Townsend and Mike Chapman of Port Angeles, the 24th District’s other two Democrats, voted for the ban.
In an earlier interview, Chapman, a former police officer, said military-style weapons don’t need to be available to the general public.
“Even gun owners say we don’t need these weapons on the street,” he said.
“These weapons are consistently used in mass shootings. The public is demanding the we take action.”
Van De Wege also said the ban would prove ineffective, predicting the U.S. Supreme Court will overturn the restriction given the justices’ June 2022 decision throwing out New York state limits on carrying guns in public on 2nd Amendment grounds.
Justice Clarence Thomas, in writing the majority opinion, said in an assertion widely seen as affecting future court decisions that gun restrictions should be upheld only if the government demonstrates “that the regulation is consistent with the Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.”
He said, “when the Second Amendment’s plain text covers an individual’s conduct, the Constitution presumptively protects that conduct.”
The Supreme Court, in a 2008 majority opinion written by conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, said the Second Amendment right “is not unlimited” in a ruling that struck down a Washington, D.C. law that banned handguns.
“It is not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose,” wrote Scalia, who was known to interpret the Constitution from a historical perspective.
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Legislative Reporter Paul Gottlieb, a former senior reporter at Peninsula Daily News, can be reached at cpaulgottlieb@gmail.com.