Bellevue, WA — Washington state’s governor, Democrat Jay Inslee has decided, from his high and mighty position, that gun stores are not essential for the citizens of the evergreen state. But some gun store owners in Washington disagree with him and are continuing to serve the needs of gun owners with appropriate social distancing in place.
While the state is under ‘stay at home’ orders — another term for un-monitored house arrest — Wade’s Eastside Guns has not closed their doors. But they aren’t oblivious to the social pressure from some elements of society to close up shop. They even went so far as to put a statement up on their website. It said in part, “As far as the state and all of us are concerned, your right to the protection of yourself, your family and others is an essential need and a constitutional right.”
Wade’s isn’t the only gun store who thinks the Governor is out in left field. Lynnwood Gun, owned by Tiffany Teasdale, is still doing a brisk business. Teasdale told reporters, “We don’t have anything in writing that says we need to stay closed. And I don’t know anything about what the governor has said.”
There were more gun stores unwilling to close their doors, but we’re not in the business of tattling, so if they didn’t want to be interviewed, we’re not going to draw attention to them,
Who Decides What Is Essential?
On Tuesday, Governor Inslee’s office updated the list of which businesses are considered essential. He included auto repair stores, commercial fishing, and commercial geoduck operations as essential. But he left gun stores off the list.
It wasn’t an oversight. When asked for clarification, Inslee’s spokesperson, Tara Lee confirmed it. “My understanding is that gun shops are not considered essential and are included in the temporary closure of nonessential businesses,” she said.
Inslee’s updates on Tuesday came after Trump’s Department of Homeland Security issued guidelines saying that gun stores should be considered essential. Chris Krebs of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency made the announcement a week ago today, on March 28th.
After those guidelines came out, several other figures begrudgingly changed their stance. Most notably were Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villaneuva, who said that he didn’t like the guidelines, but would abide by them. Another figure who made headlines for reversing his position was Phil Murphy of New Jersey, who agreed to let gun stores operate in the state so long as they kept to the ‘social distancing’ suggestions. Considering that Murphy is one of the most anti-gun governors out there, the Department of Homeland Security guidelines seemed to carry a bit of weight.
But not for Washington’s Inslee. But Inslee isn’t the only governor who isn’t closing gun stores. The Republican governor of Massachusetts has also bucked against the Trump administration’s suggestions and has ordered all gun stores to close.
These Gun Stores Have Guts
We may not all agree on how dangerous the Corona Virus is or whether the media has exaggerated the threat it poses. But gun owners across the country agree that a governor having the right to suspend the Second Amendment during an emergency is a bad thing.
It was bad during the natural disaster of Hurricane Katrina and it’s bad now. Gun owners know that in the future, anytime there’s an emergency of any kind, these anti-gun governors have set the precedent that they can make millions of gun owners into criminals with a snap of their fingers.
Gun owners –us included–often sit around and say, “If they ever tried that here…” and make sure everybody knows we’re not afraid to stand up for ourselves. But these store owners are actually walking their talk. If we hadn’t already stocked up for the Boog in January and then topped off our tank a few weeks ago, we’d throw some business their way. They’ve earned it.