Following on the heels of President Obama’s gun initiative, Washington Governor Jay Inslee has announced his own executive action to curb firearm violence. Calling his executive order a “measured, modest approach” to preventing gun deaths, Governor Inslee is directing state and local health care and law enforcement agencies to do a better job of both collecting and sharing data.Inslee says more complete information should be available when someone tries to buy a gun and, he says, there should be more follow up if they are turned down.
Inslee says he also wants to strengthen the law requiring background checks. He says he's tired of waiting for Congress or the Washington legislature to act.
“I don’t know about anybody else, but every time I read about someone’s son or daughter being killed, it just gets me right here and I don’t want to wait another 24 hours to do something about it,” Inslee said at a news conference in Burien.
Inslee’s executive action includes a statewide suicide prevention plan. As part of that, Harborview's Injury Prevention and Research Center is launching a social media campaign aimed at prevention.
Although we are likely to hear more about homicides than suicides, Inslee's office says between 2012 and 2014, 80 percent of gun deaths were suicides.
