Dave Workman: ‘Astroturf’ versus real grassroots in Evergreen State

While many eyes will be focused on today’s planned demonstration in front of the Thomas S. Foley federal courthouse in Spokane, an equally important, if not more so, story has unfolded over the past week in Olympia, where true grassroots action by Second Amendment activists put the brakes on what appeared to be a runaway train of gun control, and brought gun prohibitionists whining for money they don’t need in an e-mail appeal.

All of this is happening in the wake of yesterday’s filing by state Attorney General Bob Ferguson a motion to dismiss the lawsuit against provisions of Initiative 594 – the 18-page gun control measure passed by voters in November – that was filed by the Second Amendment Foundation and several other plaintiffs. Ferguson’s motion may be read here.

Today’s Spokane courthouse event is a protest of the Feb. 25 arrest of Yakima-area activist Anthony Bosworth, variously described as an Iraq War veteran in the Spokane Spokesman Review and as a former candidate for the office of Yakima County sheriff by the Yakima Herald. Bosworth was arrested during a demonstration in which he openly carried a firearm onto property in front of the courthouse. He was cited and released, and the incident has become a cause celeb among some gun activists.

In anticipation of today’s protest, Chief U.S. District Court Judge Rosanna Malouf Peterson issued an order on Monday that prohibits firearms on federal courthouse grounds in Spokane and Yakima, plus the U.S. Post Office in Spokane and U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Yakima. That order may be read here.

All of this is in the spotlight, and it will raise hackles on both sides of the Second Amendment debate. It will be good for weekend news briefs to rival updates on yesterday’s light plane crash involving movie star Harrison Ford.

But in Western Washington today, a much quieter story is still rippling, and the effects of those ripples are really bugging gun control advocates who thought that after passing I-594, they had the wind at their backs. There were several proposals in Olympia to further ratchet down on firearms owners, with perhaps the most onerous being a measure crafted in the image of a gun law in California that was passed in reaction to last year’s Santa Barbara mayhem in which narcissistic killer Elliot Rodger fatally stabbed three men before gunning down two young women and a fourth man.
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