A Monday report at Axios.com says Washington state, while having some of the nation’s strictest gun control laws, has also seen the homicide rates climb, from 9.8 deaths per 100,000 residents in 2015 to 12.4 per 100,000 in 2022, per CDC data.
However, according to Washington Homicide, a popular site on “X” not affiliated with any law enforcement agency, the number of Evergreen State murders actually declined in 2024 to 317, from the 399 logged in 2022. During that same period, the number of active concealed pistol licenses increased to approximately 700,000, and exceeded that number for a few months last year.
All of those people licensed to carry did not bring up the homicide rate or raw number, while it appears all of the restrictive gun control laws did not appreciably bring down the numbers, either.
According to the Axios.com report, “More than 1,000 people were fatally shot in Washington in 2022.” There is no indication how many of those were suicides or accidental deaths, but according to the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs (WASPC), there were 394 homicides in 2022 and 376 in 2023. How those figures jibe with Washington Homicide seems clear: They don’t.
The Axios.com report focused on several restrictive gun control measures now in play as the state legislature continues to meet. The session will continue into April, so any predictions about how these gun control proposals might fare in the weeks ahead would be speculation.
But the story quoted Senate Minority Leader John Braun, a Centralia Republican, who told reporters the new anti-gun legislation is taking the state “down the wrong path.” It’s the same sentiment echoed by grassroots gun rights activists who have been busy on social media, especially the Facebook page for the Washington 2025 Legislative Action Group. There, more than 13,000 members follow gun control and other legislation, with a current focus on House Bill 1504, which would burden Evergreen State gun owners with liability insurance for every firearm they own, and the costs would be prohibitive. The prevailing theory is that the legislation was crafted in an attempt to make gun ownership too expensive for most citizens.
FINANCIAL TYRANNY? HOUSE BILL WOULD REQUIRE GUN INSURANCE
This measure is getting national exposure in the firearms press, with coverage at AMMOLAND, the Daily Chronicle and other local newspapers, and the National Rifle Association. Critics assert this measure is designed to create a de facto gun registry in the state, and also drive gun owners out of the state, despite the state constitutional amendment which reads, “The right of the individual citizen to bear arms in defense of himself, or the state, shall not be impaired, but nothing in this section shall be construed as authorizing individuals or corporations to organize, maintain or employ an armed body of men.”
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