Rep. Matt Shea, R-Spokane Valley, center, poses for a group photo with gun owners
The Rally was not held in a gun free zone. The gun grabbers makeup the law as they go.
Via Guns
Blaming a rally by a group of legally armed Second Amendment advocates at the state Capitol in Olympia Thursday, Washington’s Lt. Governor ruled Friday that guns are now banned from the chamber.
The rally of some 200 gun rights activists on the steps of the Capitol building Jan. 15, was a continuation of the vocal opposition to the state’s background check ballot referendum, I-594, passed by voters last November. However, when the protest spilled over into the public gallery, there was an altercation between an open carrier and a state police lieutenant that ended with threats of removal and arrest.
The next day, Lt. Gov. Brad Owen (D) who serves as the president of the state Senate, announced a prohibition on the open carry of firearms in the public gallery moving forward.[…]
The event that led to the ban occurred when State Patrol Lt. Mike Eggleston in the gallery confronted an activist Jason McMillon on Thursday. Eggleston advised McMillion that he was carrying his Rock River LAR-PDS pistol in a “tactical” manner. After threatening McMillion with arrest, the activist, a 20-year military veteran, concealed the firearm.
Eggleston contended that the manner McMillion was carrying his gun was in violation of state law, which prohibits displaying a firearm to “intimidate another or that warrants alarm for the safety of other persons.”
One of the harshest critics of the events behind the crackdown in the state Capitol came from Alan Gottlieb, chair of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms and founder of the Second Amendment Foundation, both of which are headquartered in the state. It is the SAF that is leading the charge against I-594 in the courts.