I'm happy the Council did this. About 5 years ago I was driving to the golf course at Shoreline and about 1/4 mile before arriving there I saw a young man with a rifle (or air rifle) near the walking and cycling path on the north side of the road. He was crouched down and seemed to be intently aiming at something near the ground. I phoned 911 and many police cars arrived within a few minutes. I never read anything about the arrest in The Voice or the Mercury, so I don't know if it was a rifle or air rifle, but it was a very unnerving experience at the time.

I would ask everyone to consider that this most recent ban is a kind of security theater that restricts individual rights while having literally zero effect on gun violence rates.

I commend to everyone everyone BJ Campbell's writing on the topic, especially:
Web Link Campbell does a great job of looking only at what can be quantified, and he doesn't identify as either right or left.

In the article, he cites a major study out of Boston University. Here's the pertinent section:

>Let’s look at the study’s findings:

* “Assault weapon” bans have no effect.
* Magazine capacity bans have no effect.
* None of the gun laws they modeled affected the suicide numbers at all. [Note: 2/3 of gun deaths are suicides]
* Limiting handgun purchase to age 21 and over has no effect.
* Trafficking prohibitions (restrictions on buying with the intent to sell) have no effect.
* Junk gun laws (prohibiting handguns that fail to meet certain requirements) have no effect.
* Stand-your-ground laws have no effect, positive or negative.
* Permitless carry laws have no effect, positive or negative.

There were only three laws that had any effect whatsoever.

* Universal background checks, either through required background checks for all sales or through a firearm purchase permit, reduced gun homicides by 14.9% and had no effect on suicide.
* Prohibiting those convicted of a violent misdemeanor from buying a handgun reduced gun homicides by 18.1%, and had no effect on suicide.
* Shall-issue laws, which ensure that law enforcement officers can’t discriminate when issuing concealed carry permits, increased gun homicides by 9.0% and had no effect on suicide.

Follow-up article just out:
Web Link

while i'm glad the city is putting in legislation to hold accountable those who commit such crimes, i feel what we need are national laws. PeaceLove made a comment on effective measures. universal background checks are national, as are the restrictions to felons, but he/she mentioned violent misdemeanors. in any event, we need to have national legislation in order to solve this issue in the u.s.

????

I agree that it would be great if people secured their guns and didn't bring them onto city property, but I don't see how this law will have any effect. Just another knee-jerk measure.