About two-thirds of vot­ers in Wash­ing­ton State back leg­is­la­tion to pro­hib­it the car­ry­ing of firearms at local gov­ern­ment pub­lic meet­ing facil­i­ties and elec­tion sites, a poll con­duct­ed last week for the North­west Pro­gres­sive Insti­tute has found.

66% of sev­en hun­dred like­ly 2022 Wash­ing­ton State vot­ers sur­veyed by Pub­lic Pol­i­cy Polling (PPP) for NPI expressed sup­port for this pro­pos­al to pre­vent gun vio­lence and pro­tect our democ­ra­cy while just 29% were opposed and 5% were not sure. 57% of the total sur­veyed expressed strong support.

Spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Tana Senn (D‑41st Dis­trict: Mer­cer Island, Belle­vue, New­cas­tle), House Bill 1630 pro­hibits the open car­ry and pos­ses­sion of firearms and oth­er pro­hib­it­ed weapons at local gov­ern­ment meet­ing facil­i­ties, includ­ing those used by school boards, city coun­cils, and coun­ty leg­isla­tive bodies.

The bill applies the same pro­hi­bi­tion to elec­tion-relat­ed offices and facilities.

There are excep­tions. As the non­par­ti­san staff analy­sis explains: “These restric­tions do not apply to any fed­er­al, state, or local law enforce­ment offi­cer; or any secu­ri­ty per­son­nel hired by a coun­ty and engaged in pro­vid­ing secu­ri­ty for a count­ing cen­ter, a vot­ing cen­ter, a stu­dent engage­ment hub; or the coun­ty elec­tions and vot­er reg­is­tra­tion office or areas of facil­i­ties used for such purposes.

HB 1630 passed the House 57–41 on Feb­ru­ary 14th, 2022.

The Sen­ate Law & Jus­tice Com­mit­tee heard tes­ti­mo­ny on HB 1630 this morn­ing, includ­ing from Thurston Coun­ty Audi­tor Mary Hall, Spokane City Coun­cil Pres­i­dent Breean Beg­gs, Cam­den Weber of the Brady Cen­ter to Pre­vent Gun Vio­lence, and Lyn Ida­hosa-Berry of the Fed­er­al Way Black Col­lec­tive. Not sur­pris­ing­ly, the bill is opposed by the gun lob­by, includ­ing the Nation­al Rifle Association.

Forty peo­ple signed up to tes­ti­fy pro or con; most were not called due to time con­straints. 1,791 sign-ins from peo­ple not wish­ing to tes­ti­fy were also recorded.

The Leg­is­la­ture pre­vi­ous­ly enact­ed a law that for­bids the car­ry­ing of firearms on the Wash­ing­ton State Capi­tol Cam­pus and at protests.

HB 1630 would sen­si­bly expand sim­i­lar pro­tec­tions to the local lev­el — a move that our research shows is enthu­si­as­ti­cal­ly sup­port­ed by Wash­ing­to­ni­ans in every region of the state, includ­ing East­ern and Cen­tral Washington.

Here is the ques­tion that we asked and the respons­es we received:

QUESTION: Do you strong­ly sup­port, some­what sup­port, some­what oppose or strong­ly oppose pro­hibit­ing firearms from being car­ried at local gov­ern­ment pub­lic meet­ing facil­i­ties and at elec­tion sites, except by sworn law enforce­ment offi­cers, trained secu­ri­ty guards, and on-duty servicemembers?

STATEWIDE ANSWERS:

• Sup­port: 66% 
  • Strong­ly sup­port: 57%
  • Some­what sup­port: 9%
• Oppose: 29%
  • Some­what oppose: 8%
  • Strong­ly oppose: 21%
• Not sure: 5%

BY REGION

• King Coun­ty (68% total sup­port, 16% opposition) 
  • Strong­ly sup­port: 61%
  • Some­what sup­port: 7%
  • Some­what oppose: 9%
  • Strong­ly oppose: 18%
  • Not sure: 5%
• North Puget Sound (70% total sup­port, 27% opposition) 
  • Strong­ly sup­port: 57%
  • Some­what sup­port: 13%
  • Some­what oppose: 5%
  • Strong­ly oppose: 22%
  • Not sure: 4%
• South Sound (65% total sup­port, 27% opposition) 
  • Strong­ly sup­port: 50%
  • Some­what sup­port: 15%
  • Some­what oppose: 9%
  • Strong­ly oppose: 18%
  • Not sure: 7%
• Olympic Penin­su­la and South­west Wash­ing­ton (70% total sup­port, 29% opposition) 
  • Strong­ly sup­port: 68%
  • Some­what sup­port: 2%
  • Some­what oppose: 7%
  • Strong­ly oppose: 22%
  • Not sure: 1%
• East­ern and Cen­tral Wash­ing­ton (56% total sup­port; 35% total opposition) 
  • Strong­ly sup­port: 47%
  • Some­what sup­port: 9%
  • Some­what oppose: 11%
  • Strong­ly oppose: 24%
  • Not sure: 9%

Our sur­vey of 700 like­ly 2022 Wash­ing­ton State vot­ers was in the field from Thurs­day, Feb­ru­ary 17th through Fri­day, Feb­ru­ary 18th, 2022.

It uti­lizes a blend­ed method­ol­o­gy, with auto­mat­ed phone calls to land­lines (50%) and text mes­sage answers from cell phone only respon­dents (50%).

The poll was con­duct­ed by Pub­lic Pol­i­cy Polling for the North­west Pro­gres­sive Insti­tute and has a mar­gin of error of +/- 3.7% at the 95% con­fi­dence interval.

More infor­ma­tion about the survey’s method­ol­o­gy is avail­able here.

It’s not every day that we see sup­port this high — and intense! — for a bill like HB 1630. While we have found extreme­ly strong sup­port for gun safe­ty leg­is­la­tion and ini­tia­tives going back years in our polling, we were impressed with how strong­ly HB 1630 res­onat­ed with vot­ers, includ­ing vot­ers in rur­al areas.

Pro­hibit­ing the car­ry­ing of weapons at local gov­ern­ment meet­ing facil­i­ties and elec­tion sites except by law enforce­ment and secu­ri­ty forces will enable our local elect­ed offi­cials to cre­ate safe, wel­com­ing envi­ron­ments for everyone.

The Sen­ate should join the House in pass­ing HB 1630 with­in the next few days and get this extreme­ly pop­u­lar leg­is­la­tion to Gov­er­nor Jay Inslee’s desk.