In the annals of Washington lawmaking, 2018 will go down as the year your lawmakers wavered on guns, failed on climate policy, choked on capital punishment, and attempted to hide their own records like weasels. Okay, it wasn’t all bad. Bolstered by a new Democratic majority, legislators also passed historic bills on voting rights, pay equity, net neutrality, and sexual harassment. For those of you following for the first time, your state lawmakers meet only once a year for either 60 or 105 days. Since this year ends with an even number, they only had 60 days to move bills through the state’s two chambers and onto Governor Jay Inslee’s desk. Here’s what legislators did—and just as importantly, didn’t—get done.
Guns
You might imagine the dead kids in Parkland, Florida, would give your lawmakers the kick they needed to pass comprehensive gun reform. Think again. Our gun laws are so fucked that most 18-year-olds can waltz into their neighborhood weapons mart and leave with military-style assault rifles, such as the AR-15s used to commit murders in Parkland, Aurora, San Bernardino, Orlando, Newtown, and Mukilteo. Yet this year legislators failed to raise the age restriction for buying assault weapons to 21, the same bar set for handguns. They also failed to pass enhanced background checks for people purchasing assault weapons, another common-sense regulation that gun-control advocates have been pushing for years. What we got was low-hanging fruit. Yes, Olympia banned bump stocks, the type of device that allowed the Las Vegas shooter to quickly fire so many rounds. But even Donald Trump and the NRA support bump stock regulations. Legislators also passed a bill adding domestic-violence-related harassment to the list of crimes that land a person on a no-buy list. And another bill allows people who recognize they might be a danger to themselves to voluntarily add their names to a blacklist for gun purchases. All important steps. None go far enough. STEVEN HSIEH
