Washington State may be taking a page out of California’s playbook as Second Amendment activists consider a move toward splitting the state in two. The proposed new state, which carries the proud name of Liberty, would comprise 20 east-side counties. This drastic move comes after 60% of the voters approved Initiative 1639, which raises the age requirement to 21 to be able to purchase automatic weapons, among other restrictions and bans.
...Washington State is “the epicenter of resistance to Trump’s agenda”...
On Feb. 15, the group collected at the state capitol to express concerns and plans to secede. Nick, who declined to provide his last name to KIRO 7 news, lives in Longview, which is not part of Eastern Washington. He brought his semiautomatic rifle with him and said: “I want to defend my rights. Make sure that my children won't get molested by a group of illegals.”
Betsy Keller-Zal, another Longview resident, had equal concerns. “We follow the Constitution and they're just chipping away at the Constitution on all our rights, not just the Second Amendment,” she said.
Seattle: Liberal Haven
Seattle is known for its liberal makeup with a city council that thinks it’s above the law, and even its own state constitution. The Washington Post said Washington State is “the epicenter of resistance to Trump’s agenda” after legislators took exception to the president’s travel ban “and a federal judge in Seattle ordered a national halt to the ban’s enforcement.”
For example:
In July 2017, Councilman Larry Gossett refused to have the sidewalks power-washed to remove human urine and feces left by the overwhelming homeless population because he “believes that power-washing the sidewalk using hoses might constitute a microaggression against blacks.”
In August 2017, Seattle’s landlords lost their ability to screen prospective tenants with the Fair Chance Housing Ordinance, which prohibits them from performing criminal background checks and requesting security deposits.
In May 2018, the council went after Amazon with an “employee head tax, a proposal to slap a 26-cent tax on every hour completed by an employee at businesses generating $20 million in revenue per year.”
In July 2018, the council passed a tax on the wealthy that violates the state’s constitution.
In October 2018, the state pressed for a law that “guns be secured under some form of lock when not being carried by the owner.”
There are many more examples of Western Washington’s liberal bias, including a protest against racism pushed by students at a university that called for no white people to attend a specific day of school. Is it any wonder the more conservative citizens of the state wish to separate from such insane chaos?
Republican Rep. Matt Shea from Spokane is the leader of the group fighting the state’s outrageous gun laws. During the gathering, he spoke in front of the proposed new flag, featuring the outstretched wings of an osprey, and said: “I am not going to sit in a state that is going to try to take away our firearms either by regulation, by cost, or by confiscation. Are you?” The crowd responded with a resounding “no.”
Washingtonians don’t care for Californians too much (which I found out when I first moved here), yet there does seem to be a trend where the Evergreen State adopts a lot of the Golden State’s laws and regulations, about five years down the road. Californians have been trying to split their state into six, at first, and then three different states for quite some time now. Another group is trying to secede from the Union. Now, Eastern Washington wants to become Liberty, the 51st state, and separate from the more liberal Western residents.
But they aren’t the only ones. Seattle’s progressive britches have ruffled a lot of feathers across the state, and many on the west side are joining in the protest against the newest gun restrictions. Liberals’ antics are splitting the nation as more states consider seceding from the Union.
