Washington Pistol Registration in Washington

[awshoot]

Which makes these Threads a complete waste of time. I do know I was only able to recover several stolen Pistols because the information was available at the time. That's good enough for me.

I disagree -- the reasons for gun control measures can actually be quite regressive and the earliest gun control in America was usually about race. I don't know if that is what was behind WA's laws -- I'd first have to figure out exactly how old this law is -- but is certainly a possibility: Bellingham riots - Wikipedia

If WA's gun control laws have roots in racism, I think that is a very interesting fact to bring up with gun control advocates. Whether that actually is the case, I don't know, but I'm interested enough to make a visit to the local law library in the near future to see what I can see.

As a side note, my trip to the range was fun, but sort of a waste. I had loaded up a set of tests for a new caliber I want to reload -- and left them at home. Ended up just shooting the rifle I brought for something to do while letting the barrel cool in the rifle related to the test ammo.

 

[KKG]

Elvis has left the building! And, so have I.

 

[awshoot]

Today I went down to my local law library to look at Remington's -- As far as I can tell the pistol registration provision did not exist in the 1932 bound publication, at least the index does not point to any such statute. The 1940 supplement to that publication does contain the registration provision and references a law passed in 1935. I checked the bound volume containing that law, and it appears to be the same as available online here: http://leg.wa.gov/CodeReviser/documents/sessionlaw/1935c172.pdf?cite=1935 c 172 § 9;

So, presuming the 1932 index is correct and complete (which it likely is), I feel more than 99% certain that the backdoor registration provision of RCW 9.41.090 took effect in 1935.

That still leaves the interesting question whether that gap where the state offloaded the record keeping to the Chief of Police has any impact on whether WA can do a registry under FOPA.