Nearly one month after the shooting massacre in Parkland, Florida, lawmakers in Washington state are still debating how to prevent future school shooting tragedies from happening here.
Republican State Senator Steve O'Ban secured funding in the budget for a special task force comprised of education officials, Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, the Attorney General’s office, victims of mass shootings, the ACLU and others, to try and figure out how best to identify and intervene against potential threats or perpetrators.
“What I hope to come out of this is not just a lot of good ideas,” Sen. O’Ban told KING 5. “I want to have an actionable plan, and that may involve necessary legislation to give authority to local law enforcement to take that information and act on it.”
Senator O'Ban points to the breakdown in communication in Florida -- the red flags reported about the suspect without proper follow-up.
“You can't just have a place that gets this information and does nothing with it,” said O’Ban. “It has to have expertise and authority to collect that information, connect the dots and then act on it.”
The task force would also educate the public about Extreme Risk Protection Orders, an initiative passed in 2016 by Washington voters that allows family members or law enforcement to petition a court to temporarily block an individual’s access to firearms if there’s evidence that person is a threat to themselves or others.
Elected leaders have mentioned in recent weeks that Washington residents and families may not be aware that the new law is on the books.
“It’s not of any use if people don’t know about it,” O’Ban said.
O’Ban’s proposed task force, led by the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs, will submit recommendations and proposed legislation to the legislature by December of 2018, according to the supplemental budget.
“We know what needs to be done,” said Senator David Frockt, D-Seattle, supportive but skeptical of another task force. “We need better mental health. We need more school resource officers, and we need to ensure that young people who are unstable don't have access to firearms so they can't shoot up a school.”
Senator Frockt’s school safety and enhanced background check bill stalled this past legislative session, despite a Democratic majority in Olympia. It passed a Senate committee but never made it to the floor for a vote before the full Senate.
“I still think if we had put it on the floor it would have had a very good chance to pass,” said Sen. Frockt.
“I felt personally this issue was important enough we should have brought it forward for a vote to test it,” he continued. “In the end, had it not passed, we would have been at least able to say we tried.”
Senator Frockt's bill would have increased the age to legally buy semi-automatic rifles from 18 to 21. It would have also required an additional state background check for buyers similar to what's required to buy a handgun in Washington state.
“I think we’ve seen it make sense to have additional background check just to make sure," said Frockt. “The reason is the federal background check isn’t working as intended.”
The bill, which had been revised several times and included bipartisan school safety measures in its final version, received backing and support by the state's powerful Washington Alliance for Gun Responsibility. The organization even put ads on cable channels statewide, in a last-ditch effort to revive the stalled legislation.
However, the proposals received intense pushback from supporters of the Second Amendment; activists and citizens on both sides of the debate flooded lawmakers inboxes with emails.
“Those are so controversial,” said Sen. O’Ban of proposals tied to gun control. “Let's do what we can now on a consensus basis to protect kids.”
However, the debate over gun safety appears far from finished. A national school walkout is planned for Wednesday to honor the victims of Parkland -- one month to the day 17 people were killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
“I think this is one of the fundamental issues of our time,” said Frockt.
Florida lawmakers last week passed gun safety legislation last week that included a provision to raise the age of purchase of rifles to 21 and created a waiting period of three days until a background check is completed. The legislation also included a provision that creates a program similar to Washington’s extreme risk protection orders, as well as a provision that would allow school employees to be armed.
