In November the citizens of Washington have the opportunity to make Washington safer by voting “yes” for Initiative 594. This initiative will reduce access to guns by criminals, domestic violence abusers, and other dangerous persons.

At present only guns purchased in Washington through a licensed dealer are subject to a criminal background check. Guns purchased or transferred in other ways, such as through gun shows, on-line or from a private party are not regulated. Everytown for Gun Safety has estimated, based on national surveys, that in Washington state under current law about 40 percent of guns transfers are not subject to a background check.

Initiative 594 will save lives. There is evidence showing that required background checks for gun sales reduce gun violence. Moreover, there is evidence showing that background checks reduce by 38 percent the rate at which women are killed by the gun of an intimate party and decrease by 49 percent gun suicide.

Since 1994 federal law, which requires background checks when guns are purchased from private dealers, has blocked more than 2.1 million gun purchases nationwide. The expansion of background checks mandated by initiative 594 will make it even more difficult for dangerous persons in our state to acquire guns.

Initiative 594 contains many reasonable exemptions such as gifts between immediate family members, sale or transfer of antique firearms, temporary transfers to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm, transfers at an established shooting range, and temporary transfer to a directly supervised child for lawful hunting, sporting or educational purposes.

Opponents of expanded background checks, in an attempt to defeat the initiative, claim that the initiative will regulate temporary innocuous transfers such as those at a hunting safety class, which is not held at a shooting range. Clearly our police would not make an arrest in this type of situation. Moreover, opponents of Initiative 594 have not been able to give any examples where this has occurred in states that have adopted expanded background checks.

Voting for Initiative 594 will protect Washington citizens by closing the loophole that allows dangerous persons to acquire guns without a background check.

Diana Thompson, Bellevue