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'Will Not Comply' Gun Show Planned In Yakima Area

M Glasgow
/
Flickr

 

We’ve seen rallies and demonstrations against Washington’s new voter-approved background check law. But now a gun rights group is planning a “we will not comply” gun show.

It’s dubbed the Arms Expo. It’s scheduled for the weekend of June 20 in the Yakima area at a location yet to be announced. A website bills the event as a gun show and “patriot campout for the whole family.” And it promises “no background checks, no paperwork, no infringement.”

“We will be exercising what I would refer to as constitutional sales where there’s no background check of any sort,” organizer Sam Wilson said.

Wilson said anyone who attends the expo and sells or purchases a firearm without a background check does risk arrest. But he predicts law enforcement won’t intervene.

Phil Watson with the Second Amendment Foundation criticized the “we will not comply” movement as a “clique of gadflies.” His organization is challenging portions of the background check law in federal court.

Another gun rights event is planned at the Washington capitol for Saturday, February 7. Participants plan to protest a new ban on openly-carried guns in the public viewing galleries of the Washington House and Senate. That ban also extends to public hearing rooms.

Since January 2004, Austin Jenkins has been the Olympia-based political reporter for the Northwest News Network. In that position, Austin covers Northwest politics and public policy as well as the Washington State legislature. You can also see Austin on television as host of TVW's (the C–SPAN of Washington State) Emmy-nominated public affairs program "Inside Olympia." Prior to joining the Northwest News Network, Austin worked as a television reporter in Seattle, Portland and Boise. Austin is a graduate of Garfield High School in Seattle and Connecticut College in New London, Connecticut. Austin’s reporting has been recognized with awards from the Association of Capitol Reporters and Editors, Public Radio News Directors Incorporated and the Society of Professional Journalists.