— from Mark Mayer —
This weekend is the final push for gathering signatures for these three initiatives. All of these initiatives have strong support from progressives throughout the state.
Signature gathering will be taking place this weekend at the ferry landing on both days, the farmers market on Saturday and in front of the Co-op on Sunday. The deadline to turn in petitions is early next week. With your help, we will get this done.
I-1600 would provide universal healthcare in our state, saving us an estimated $9 billion per year.
I-1631 would assess a fee (not a tax) on large polluters, shifting that money to be used to sponsor clean energy and clean energy jobs and helping us in our transition off of fossil fuels.
I-1639 would institute much needed gun reforms in Washington State.
These measures will only appear on the ballot if enough signatures can be gathered by the end of June. People throughout the state are helping, and you can help here in San Juan County.
If you have been waiting for a worthwhile campaign in which to get involved, this is the one (actually three).
Thank you, and let’s make a difference in San Juan County.
“I-1639 would institute much needed gun reforms in Washington State.”
And I suppose that these “much needed gun reforms” will immediately cause the felonious and the insane to stop their murderous attacks upon the rest of us.
Yeah. Right. Want to buy the Brooklyn Bridge?
Why do some foolish people believe that applying restrictions and penalties to people who already obey the law will somehow affect the anti-social behavior of those who don’t?
Even if you remove guns entirely from the equation, violence will always remain a problem.
London, where guns are just about unavailable, now has a knife-violence problem, as well as a murder rate which surpasses that of New York City.
Does anyone truly believe that restricting knives could possibly solve the problem? The UK already does that, and it hasn’t helped.
If we keep focussing on guns, we are choosing quick and cheap, but completely ineffectual, pseudo-solutions, rather than working on real answers to our country’s violence problem.
Vote “NO” on I-1639.
Per the BBC: “Reality Check: Has London’s murder rate overtaken New York’s?”
“The New York Police Department dealt with 11 homicides in February – while London’s Metropolitan Police opened investigations into 15 deaths. And in March, there were 22 killings in London and one fewer on the other side of the Atlantic.
But that grim month-by-month tally is not quite the whole story.
The one thing that’s always true about statistics is that there will be blips – sudden rises or falls in the data. These two high months for London could ultimately turn out to be outliers.
We don’t yet know. But older data shows why we should be cautious.
In January, for example, the Met investigated eight murders in London. The NYPD looked into 18 killings.
And that means that while Scotland Yard has opened 48 homicide inquiries so far this year, New York has in fact opened 50 murder files.
Looking at 2017, the homicide rate per 100,000 population stood at 1.2 in London and 3.4 in New York.”
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-43628494
Steve Henigson, It is illegal to own a switchblade or other spring blade knife in the state of Washington.
Really too bad that you’re not more organized. I was at the Farmer’s Market on Saturday CHECK. I was in front of the Coop on Sunday CHECK. And, yet you failed to provided a comprehensive schedule of when you would be at those sites. Too bad. Yes, too bad.