WA:McGinn, CeaseFire ‘gun free zones’ effort could backfire

Even before their morning press event on Capitol Hill to push their “gun free” businesses idea, Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn and Washington CeaseFire were being heavily panned by a majority of people commenting at the Seattle Times, KOMO, Seattle P-I.com and KING websites, and lurking in the background are some questions.

Does this have anything to do with recent Open Carry activism in Seattle? If this effort began as a reaction to Open Carry – singling that practice out for harassment – it is looking more and more like a public relations debacle.

Who paid for the decals? CeaseFire's Ralph Fascitelli told Examiner via e-mail that his group paid for the design, but he is "not sure" who paid for the printing.

The Bellevue-based Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms issued a press statement about 30 minutes before the media event Monday morning, in which Chairman Alan Gottlieb said the move is aimed at “political theater rather than public safety.”

If McGinn was looking for a campaign issue in an effort to win a second term against State Sen. Ed Murray, who beat him in the primary earlier this month, a ploy that essentially promotes discrimination based on lifestyle choice – exercising a fundamental, constitutionally-protected civil right – may have been the wrong horse for the mayor and CeaseFire to climb aboard.

On the Open Carry forum, one observer stated, “At least crooks will know which places to rob. This is Seattle. Where it's better to wrap yourself in a warm blanket of utopian ideas instead of dealing with the harshness of reality.” The reaction over on the Washington Arms Collectors' Facebook page is just as interesting.

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