The highly-publicized arrest of a 17-year-old double-homicide suspect in Pierce County, Washington over the weekend serves as a stark reminder that restrictive gun control measures which affect only law-abiding citizens do not prevent—and never will—the criminal misuse of firearms.
It’s the “dirty-little-not-so-secret” failure of the gun prohibition movement.
The teen, identified as Isaiah Davion Williams, has been charged as an adult on two counts of first-degree murder and one count of second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm, according to Seattle’s KOMO, the local ABC affiliate.
Coverage of the incident and the suspect by the Seattle Times goes into greater detail. In 2024, the suspect “pleaded guilty…to two counts of third-degree assault for an incident in which he used a gun as a ‘bludgeon’ to hit a woman in the face repeatedly” in 2023. Also in 2023, he was charged with fourth-degree assault by King County prosecutors for allegedly hitting another teenage boy in his school locker room.”
In the assault case, the Times revealed, “A judge ordered his juvenile rehabilitation sentence be suspended in favor of community supervision, which included mental health treatment and volunteer work.” In the other assault case, “That charge was dismissed as part of a resolution through his guilty plea to third-degree assault,” the newspaper said.
Lastly, Williams “pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of a firearm for allegedly attempting to enter the King County Superior Courthouse with a loaded firearm, that police later determined was stolen from a gun dealer.”
This is hardly a problem confined to Washington state. CBS News is reporting the arrest of a 17-year-old in Ramsey County, Minn., “after authorities say they confiscated at least 10 ghost guns or handguns equipped with switch devices.”
The CBS report noted, “The Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office reported that a raid on a home on the east side of St. Paul resulted in the recovery of “ghost guns, automatic machine guns, multiple extended magazines and enough ammunition for multiple drive-by shootings.”
Out in Marin County, Calif., the San Jose Mercury News is reporting investigators “arrested a federal probationer on allegations of methamphetamine sales and gun offenses.” When lawmen searched the suspect’s home in San Rafael and a storage unit in Richmond, they reportedly found 14 firearms, including stolen guns.
Meanwhile, WKRN in Nashville, Tenn., is reporting the arrest of a 34-year-old man on probation for offenses in 2022. Police reportedly found more than 300 grams “of powder that tested positive for fentanyl” along with “a fully loaded Glock handgun with an extended magazine, a Taurus handgun and a short-barreled AR-15.”
The common denominator in all of these cases is the criminal backgrounds and/or underage possession of firearms. Teenagers, like convicted adult felons, cannot legally purchase handguns anywhere, and they cannot legally carry concealed handguns, yet in the Pierce County case, the two people killed were both apparently carrying guns. One was 19 and the other 15, published reports say.
Google up the term “illegal gun possession” and one might come up with reports like the one in the Laredo Morning Times describing charges against a Texas man who possessed firearms. The suspect is a convicted felon.
Over in Evansville, Ind., a recidivist named Marquell Lockridge is off to prison after being convicted of illegal possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, according to WFIE News.
The gun prohibition lobby and its allies in state legislatures and on Capitol Hill either don’t “get it” or actually don’t care that criminals ignore gun control laws. All of the restrictive measures adopted anywhere in the country only affect law-abiding citizens. Honest people are inconvenienced, penalized and presumed to be guilty of crimes which haven’t been committed.
Critics of tougher gun laws—the grassroots gun rights activists—believe all of the restrictions are actually designed to discourage people from exercising their Second Amendment-protected right to keep and bear arms.
For example, out in Washington, anti-gun lawmakers are pushing legislation House Bill 1163, which requires a permit-to-purchase a firearm. This mandate would include completion of a gun safety course, including a live-fire exercise, and starting in November 2026, would also apply to obtaining and renewing concealed pistol licenses. If the law is adopted, firearms rights groups have already vowed to mount challenges in court. The bill is up for a hearing this Friday before the Senate Ways and Means Committee.
How this might affect Washington CPL applications remains to be seen. The state Department of Licensing told Ammoland News that March ended with 700,943 active CPLs. The number is up from February’s 699,350 active licenses.
It amounts to a signal that Evergreen State residents are not buying any of the arguments that stricter gun control laws will make them safer. With more than 21 million active carry licenses across the U.S., people in other states have obviously reached the same conclusion while anti-gun politicians continue to bury their heads in the sand.
About Dave Workman
