An organization called Alliance for Gun Responsibility has collected 360,000 signatures to get Initiative 1639, a firearms safety proposal on the November ballot. This initiative advertises that it will raise the legal age to purchase semi-automatic weapons in Washington State to 21. It would also require gun owners to secure any firearms kept in their homes. This  initiative is financially backed by some residents of Washington State like Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, and venture capitalist Nick Hanauer.

Gun rights supporters had asked the Washngton State Supreme Court to invalidate the petitions because the petition does not include all of the changes 1639 would make in Washington state gun laws. Alan Gotlieb, Executive Vice President and founder of the Second Amendment Foundation stated that “The microscopic maze of fine print used by the initiative disguised the actual language of the measure on the back of the petitions, which violates state law.” But on Tuesday July 3rd, a Washington state Supreme Court commissioner dismissed the effort to keep it off of the ballot.

The denial isn’t likely to dissuade the efforts of the SAF to keep this off of the ballot. Alan Gotlieb wrote in an email, “We are filing a motion to reconsider as I write this.”

If the initiative makes it on to the November ballot, both sides will most likely spend large amounts of money to convince the citizens of Washington to vote their way. It is unknown at this time if any group like the NRA will back the campaign to try to defeat 1639. In 2014 and 2016 voters approved several safety measures like expanding background checks.

You can read the initiative at: https://sos.wa.gov/_assets/elections/initiatives/finaltext_1531.pdf