Letters to sheriff's about silencer crime.

[Ranb]

I sent letters to the sheriff's in Mason, Kitsap, King and Thurston counties a few days ago requesting any data they have regarding silencer crime. Thurston County replied saying they had no data for any silencer related crime since 2007. I requested more data.

When I have a stack of letters showing no (or few) silencer problems in the state, I will be sending copies to the House and Senate chairmen along with the request to give the bill a hearing.

This is a promising start. I plan on writing more letters starting with the most populous counties. If anyone else is writing, please let me know which ones so I do not duplicate your efforts. Thanks.

Ranb

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[LuftPost]

I wrote to King county (but you already knew that)

 

[Ranb]

Here is a list of Washington counties. Washington Counties Most of these links will have a link to the county sheriff's office.

Here is a list of counties by population from largest to smallest.

King 6 incidents. 01-180500, 04-163738, 06-084093, 08-136917, 08-047464, 09-170534. Do not know if these were registered silencers.
Pierce No records of 9.41.250(c) vilolations. Opinion letter sent.
Snohomish Unable to search records. Need exact time, date and location of violations. Opinion letter sent.
Spokane Do not keep records of 9.41.250(c) violations. Murder trial involving crude homemade silencer in progress. Opinion letter sent.
Clark No knowledge of any silencer crime. Other search in progress. Opinion letter sent.
Kitsap All 9.41.250 a b and c crimes grouped together. A search on "silencer" revealed one case. Opinion letter sent.
Yakima No record of since crime since 2000. No personal memory of any silencer crime at all. Opinion letter sent.
Thurston No silencer crime on record since 2007. Sheriff's office personnel says no crime in recent memory. Opinion letter sent.
Whatcom
Benton No records of silencer crime.
Skagit No records of silencer crime. Sheriff supports registered silencer use.
Cowlitz No records of silencer crime since 2004. Opinion letter sent.
Grant No records of silencer crime.
Island No records of criminal silencer use. Opinion letter sent.
Lewis No records of criminal silencer use. Opinion letter sent.
Grays Harbor
Chelan No info or memory of silencer arrests. Have to check with courts for conviction data. Opinion letter sent.
Clallam $70/hour to search records. One 22lr pistol with integral silencer seized, no arrest. Supports silencer use.
Franklin Reports no silencer crime.
Walla Walla No one in the county recalls any silencer crime. Opinion letter sent.
Mason No silencer crime on record. Opinion letter sent.
Whitman No silencer crime on record
Stevens No silencer crime on record
Okanogan
Kittitas No silencer crime on record
Douglas No records of criminal silencer use. Opinion letter sent.
Jefferson No records of criminal silencer use. Ten years ago a homemade silencer was taken and arrest made. Opinion letter sent.
Pacific No silencer related crimes since 1992.
Asotin No silencer crime reported.
Klickitat
Adams Reports no silencer crime. Opinion letter sent.
San Juan No silencer crime on record.
Pend Oreille Unable to search for 9.41.250 crimes. No personal experience with sielncer crime since 1987.
Skamania Reports no silencer crime.
Lincoln Reports no silencer crime.
Ferry Reports no silencer crime. Opinion letter sent.
Columbia Searched going back to 1997, no silencer crime.
Wahkiakum
Garfield

Every county sheriff's office has been sent a letter requesting silencer crime data.

Ranb

 

[sigman]

We in Thurston Co will get a new Sheriff on January as our current Sheriff choose not to run. So I would plan to rewrite you letter as our current Sheriff is pretty anti gun.

 

[Ranb]

So far the only replies I have are two from the Thurston county sheriff's office. Both of them are from a person other than the Sheriff. When I wrote to the sheriff in Snohomish, it was another police officer that dealt with my letters.

Even the Mason county sheriff has a person who deals with the public for him. I only saw him the first time I went to his office to get an ATF form 1 signed off, and I only saw him because I was lucky enough to be there when he was actually in. His secretary dealt with all of my ATF forms herself after that (except for his actual sig)

This is why I did not ask for opinions in the sample letter I posted. I could easily be a person seeking data trying to undermine bill 1604. I am confident that there is very little crime data associated with silencer use in Washington State as a whole. If you take a look at the criminal use of 50 caliber rifles, one of the best sources of info on how rarely they are used is the Brady Campaign's list of criminal acts. They had maybe ten cases in which a 50 caliber rifle was involved in a crime. You can bet that they included anything they could find that was 50 cal related (some were not even arrests or convictions), but they only came up with ten in a country of 300 million people for a rifle that has been around since 1920.

This is what I intend to show for silencers. I will show a copy of the letter I sent to every sheriff's office in the state (they are all the same). Then I will show the replies. Even if I get a couple of replies saying they had a couple of arrests, and several more saying they had no data, this will just strengthen my position. If I get a letter back saying they have some silencer crime, I will dig deeper and try and get a look at the case to see if it was a registered one.

The politicians are asking for data, and I am going to give them lots of negative data.

Ranb

 

[coctailer]

What were the arrests for?

 

[Ranb]

Both replies from Thurston county say they have no data since 2007. The person writing to me said she had no recollection of any silencer crime in the county at all.

Ranb

 

[sigman]

Thank you for taking this on.

 

[Ranb]

sigman,

Want to help out? Can you send letters to the last 15 counties on the list?

Ranb

 

[Ranb]

Here is a generic leter if anyone is interested. All you have to do is fill in the appropriate your's and the sheriff's name and address.

Your name, address, e-mail

Date

Sheriff's Address


Sheriff XXXXXX,

I am discussing the merits of House bill 1604 (change restrictions on firearm noise suppressors) with several of my Representatives in Olympia. One piece of information they desire are whether or not any crimes have been committed with suppressors in the State.

Does the Sheriff's Office have any experience with persons breaking the law (RCW 9.41.250 c) banning suppressor use? Has anyone in the county ever been arrested for committing any crime involving a suppressor? Are there any misdemeanor or felony convictions involving suppressors in the county? Any suppressors ever seized from crime scenes? If there have been any arrests or convictions, can you provide me with a case number or other information?

Any information you can provide would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Respectfully,

Ranb

 

[Ranb]

The following cities all have more than 50,000 people with their own police departments. Writing to these organizations would help too.

Seattle
Spokane
Tacoma
Vancouver
Bellevue
Everett
Spokane Valley
Federal Way
Kent
Yakima
Renton
Bellingham
Auburn
Kennewick
Lakewood
Pasco
Shoreline
Redmond

Departments contacted are underlined in bold.

Ranb

 

[Ranb]

Kitsay County replied with;

Unfortunately, our current records management system lists violations of dangerous weapons pursuant to RCW 9.41.250 (a), (b) and ( c ) as merely violations of RCW 9.41.250. The only way we could do a complete search for violations of subsection ( c ) would be to read each report. This records system has been in effect since December 1999, so contains many weapons violations. I did search using one keyword and found one case involving a gun with what appeared to be a silencer. I do not know what charges were filed or if the offender was convicted of anything. That report number is K03-016734. The Kitsap County Prosecutor or Kitsap County Court would have any case information about what crimes were charged.

Anyone want to wade through some records if they allow it? Anyone know how to get a look at case K03-016734? I was not able to find it here; http://dw.courts.wa.gov/

Ranb

 

[sigman]

sigman,

Want to help out? Can you send letters to the last 15 counties on the list?

Ranb

I might be able to assist. As I am a volunteer within the TCSO I am barred from some activities. I will have to check with my Sheriff's laison first. I know we are not allowed to discuss politics/politcial canidates till 30 days before the election because of our 501 (c) status.

 

[Ranb]

Interesting. I would not have thought that asking for information on cases would fall under that sort of thing.

I got another e-mail from Kitsap county. The law allows me to request a records search. I told them that I would settle for the word of their more experienced officers that there was no silencer crime (except for the one) in the county.

Ranb

 

[Ranb]

Clallam County recorder called me and said that it would cost $70 per hour to do a records search for 9.41.250 (c) violations. I asked if she would poll the police officers for any personal recollection of silencer crime. She says no one recalls any silencer crime since the early 1990's. They will e-mail this to me. Lobbying is expensive.

Ranb

 

[dsolie]

I might be able to assist. As I am a volunteer within the TCSO I am barred from some activities. I will have to check with my Sheriff's laison first. I know we are not allowed to discuss politics/politcial canidates till 30 days before the election because of our 501 (c) status.

hmmmm... Jeep or SPSMSAR Either way, say hi to Donner for me...

 

[sigman]

hmmmm... Jeep or SPSMSAR Either way, say hi to Donner for me...

Jeep. Will Donner know your screen name?

 

[dsolie]

Jeep. Will Donner know your screen name?

He should be able to figure it out.. Donner and I go back 15+ years. the D in my screen name stands for Dan.. Second part is my last name.

 

[sigman]

Will do. He is back in school now, so it might take a while for a responce.

 

[Ranb]

LuftPost had a meeting with Pedersen who told him that he wants to see letters from police chiefs who do not object to the silencer use law being changed. I will be writing to all of the county sheriff's and city CLEO's that responded to my requests for silencer crime data. I will be posting a sample letter soon for anyone who wants to help write these letters.

I have found that I am much more likely to get a response from a letter sent via the Post Office instead of using e-mail.

Ranb