Washington Governor Jay Inslee was busy today [Tuesday] fulfilling one of his key functions: signing bills into law.
During a ceremony in Olympia this morning, the governor signed several bills related to gun violence and protecting crime victims.
“I’m proud that Washington voters and legislators have done much to promote common sense gun safety in the last several years, that it’s going to help not only reduce preventable gun violence here in Washington, but these measures serve as a model for the rest of the United States,” Inslee said.
One new law is aimed at keeping firearms out of the hands of people not allowed to have guns. It would impose criminal penalties on them for making firearms, such as those created using 3-D printers, that are deemed “untraceable” and “undetectable.”
Another of the new laws will allow authorities to take away — for six months — guns possessed by people who are involuntarily detained for mental health or substance abuse reasons.
A third new law requires gun license holders to wait for the completion of a local background check before they can take away the gun they’ve purchased. That can take several days.
The governor, later in the afternoon, went to Seattle to sign a series of environmental bills. They include a new requirement that all electricity sold in Washington be carbon-free by 2045.