Initiative 1639 is not the only threat to your Second Amendment rights on the November 6 ballot. The Jefferson County Board of County Commissioners is joining the effort to keep you from exercising your constitutional rights.  The voters’ decision on who should fill the open District 3 seat on the Commission now looms large in the future of gun rights in Jefferson County.

I-1639 is the initiative that would invade your medical privacy if you buy a handgun or semi-automatic rifle; collect enough data to populate a federally-prohibited registry of gun owners; and subject lawful gun owners to prosecution if their gun is stolen and used in a crime, among other affronts to your liberties. 

 What Jefferson county commissioners are doing is more subtle and reflects an emerging tactic among anti-Second Amendment government bodies. Politicians in most jurisdictions know that being honest about wanting to take away people’s guns and their right to use them is a recipe for political disaster. To work around this inconvenient truth, liberal politicians manipulate the regulatory process by writing laws designed to chip away at your gun rights. 

 The mechanism for this is a new ordinance to re-write existing county laws pertaining to shooting ranges. Judging by the language of the ordinance, it would appear the new and onerous regulations contained in this 38-page dictum are designed for one thing: to make it too expensive and too burdensome to operate a shooting range in Jefferson County. 

 This ordinance creates new, complex and costly barriers to exercising rights under the Second Amendment. Commissioner David Sullivan claims the ordinance is, “based on health and safety issues that have been cited at gun facilities,” the largest and best known being the range operated by the Jefferson County Sportsmen Association. 

 But a careful read of the ordinance betrays the motives of Sullivan and others. Modeled after a similar piece of anti-gun legislation in Kitsap County, the draft language for Jefferson County explicitly states that, “Kitsap County has passed a commercial shooting facility ordinance that withstood legal challenge.” In other words, they think they found a way to limit your gun rights and get away with it. 

 The ordinance also attempts to indict the Sportsmen Association and the range it has operated for more than half a century. It reads, “bullets striking a residence on November 22, 2017 near the commercial shooting facility located at 112 Gun Club Rd., Port Townsend, WA 98368 on land owned by Jefferson County but operated by Jefferson County Sportsmen’s Association called to question the safety of commercial shooting facilities.” 

 The deceit is revealed by the ordinance eventually acknowledging the truth that, “it was ultimately determined the damage was likely not caused by the shooting facility operated by Jefferson County Sportsmen’s Association.” The entire ordinance is based on a false premise. 

 The Sportsmen Association is not run by One-Percenters who fund anti-gun agitators from their offices in New York. It’s about 1,100 individuals and families who pay annual dues that are lower than my monthly PUD bill. By all accounts, this group of private citizens has been a good neighbor over the past 52 years, and operates its facility in a safe and environmentally responsible manner. But the new bureaucracy, permitting demands, inspections and surveying requirements of the ordinance aren’t cheap. We’re talking about tens of thousands of dollars that groups like the Sportsmen Association simply do not have. 

 Meanwhile, a lot of complaints are from people who moved near the range after it opened in the early 1960s and now gripe about hearing guns. It’s like wanting to shut down the Port Townsend mill because you bought a house near it and it smells funny when the wind blows the wrong way. 

 This is how liberal government works. They create new law that could put a shooting range out of business. This means law abiding gun owners of Jefferson County are denied the best and biggest facility of its kind on the peninsula. Combine this loss of a long-established range with the raft of “no shooting” zones ordered by the ordinance, and people are left with virtually no nearby place to legally practice and improve their gun safety skills. Your ability to lawfully exercise your constitutional rights is diminished. 

The current board wants an incremental stealth form of gun control. What will the future 2019 Board of Commissioners do? The November 6 election to fill Kathleen Kler’s open seat will determine whether Jefferson County is governed by commissioners who are unanimously opposed to your constitutional rights. Democrat Greg Brotherton has already indicated he doesn’t want to be a disruptor on the board, so he cannot be counted upon to support your Second Amendment rights. He also just happens to be the candidate recruited by the other commissioners. Republican Jon Cooke is more independent and open-minded on the issue.

So the question is, who do you trust to defend your right to keep and bear arms?  Put another way, who do you trust not to use their powers as county commissioner to undermine your Second Amendment rights?

This new law isn’t a done deal yet. A public hearing on the ordinance is set for October 1 and it’s a good bet that plenty of anti-Second Amendment agitators will be bused-in to the courthouse for the 6:30 pm hearing. For people who believe the Bill of Rights actually means something in Jefferson County, this is probably their last best chance to speak up.