A fundraising plea just arrived from the Washington Alliance for Gun Control asking for help in getting the message to our legislators to pass I-594 requiring criminal background checks on all guns sales in Washington.

It should be called “Gun Control for Dummies.”  It is a one sided no-brainer.  How could anyone oppose it — knowing that every 14 hours a person dies in this state from gun violence?

Six hundred twenty five persons become corpses annually in Washington from gun violence.

Why must we plead with lawmakers to pass a law intended to make that happen less often?

Why is that necessary when 80 percent of voters support requiring criminal background checks on all gun sales?

It is necessary because the NRA considers itself embattled and is spending millions to defeat it.

The NRA uses the “slippery slope” argument.  A law requiring criminal background checks will lead us down the slippery slope to registration, which will enable the government to confiscate our guns.

That is also a cognitive illusion of validity – something a person believes is true but is not.

What about the 2nd Amendment?  In 1780 it enabled the colonists to defend themselves against Indian and slave uprisings.  This is 2013.  The 2nd Amendment has become an anachronism.  Calling it that is anathema to the NRA.

We have a “well regulated militia.”  We have had it since 1903 when Congress passed the Militia Act creating a well regulated militia we know as The National Guard.  Some US Supreme Court justices seem to think the Founding Fathers did not mean what they said.

What to do?  There is a critically important Washington State Senator on Mercer Island:  Steve Litzow.  Urge him to vote YES on I-594.

Cy Baumgartner