At Parkland memorial, student activists press Washington sheriffs to uphold new gun law

The shooting deaths of 17 students last Feb. 14 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School were “met with ‘thoughts and prayers'" — and "with anger and action,” Shorewood High School student Nara Kim said.

At an event in Seattle's University Heights building, a former public school, Washington State officials marked the one-year anniversary of the Parkland, Florida shooting. Kim said the shooting kickstarted a vigorous youth-led movement, March For Our Lives, with the slogan, “Not One More.”

Kim said the best thing that has come out of that movement is the awareness raised by students and subsequent passage of new gun control laws in Washington.

“The conversation has just been completely turned around," Kim said. "Like: Yes, we do have this power. We have the ability to create change, and I think just that change in mindset has been super-powerful.”

Kim said she and other organizers with Seattle's March For Our Lives event have been meeting every week since then and remain active. But advocates at the memorial said they were now hitting a new obstacle. They pleaded with local sheriffs to enforce the restrictions on gun sales that voters approved in November.

The voter-approved initiative, I-1639, requires enhanced background checks, waiting periods, secure storage, and raises the age of purchase to 21. Several sheriffs have said they will not enforce some of its provisions, and some gun dealers continue to sell semiautomatic rifles to buyers between the ages of 18 and 21.

Paul Kramer, whose son was injured by a shooting at a house party in Mukilteo, was the citizen sponsor of the initiative.

“They’re entitled to their opposition,” he said of the sheriffs. “But playing politics with this law will have consequences” in terms of possible lives lost to gun violence, he said.

“If Initiative 1639 had been in place in 2016, the gunman who shot my son would not have been able to purchase the semiautomatic assault rifle that he used to not only seriously injure my son but kill three of his friends,” Kramer said.

The 19-year-old shooter killed Anna Bui, Jacob Long and Jordan Ebner.

“Anna, Jake and Jordan’s lives were tragically cut short because an angry young man was able to walk into his local Cabela’s and walk out minutes later with a semiautomatic assault rifle,” Kramer said.

I-1639 is currently being challenged in federal court by the Second Amendment Foundation and the NRA.

At the Parkland memorial, Gov. Jay Inslee and Attorney General Bob Ferguson pledged to seek enforcement of new law, even without local sheriffs who oppose it. Inslee said the Washington State Patrol could step in.

“I’ve spoken this morning to Chief [John] Batiste with the Washington State Patrol,” Inslee said. “We have full capability of investigating crimes associated with failure to follow this law. And we have access to the courts to make sure criminal prosecutions can move forward.”