Mayor Durkan signs resolution backing new Washington State firearm safety measures

Well, thank you all for being here, and it is, I really want to thank Council Member Gonzalez for shepherding this through and sponsoring this resolution.

There are a lot of good things going on in the city, but I think this is one of the things that we have shown every step along the way, working with all the amazing people in the community, that our city refuses to accept that gun violence can be the new normal.

We're just not going to accept that.

We know the realities for our city and what we're facing for gun violence.

Too many people are losing their loved ones to gun violence.

And Council Member Gonzalez sponsored the legislation for safe storage, which I was very honored to sign, working together to get that done.

And this resolution is again showing our commitment as a city, the city council, the mayor together saying that we want to do and everything we can do to make sure that we reduce the amount of times that guns get into the wrong hands.

Easy access to guns leads to a whole range of things we know.

Children are hurt.

People who would be contemplating suicide or having easy access to guns, it's far more likely that it will be a fatal wound.

So in July, we were together when we signed the legislation.

And last week, we were very happy when King County Superior Court dismissed the NARA's challenge to our bill and said that it was appropriate.

So we know today both the city council and I as mayor of the city endorse I-1639, which will actually codify at the state level a range of protections for families and it's It's legislation that common sense, good gun owners are already doing.

We know that, for example, if you're too young to get in a bar and drink, you shouldn't be buying an assault weapon.

And having a ten day waiting period for additional time to complete a background check, I can tell you as a former US attorney, regularly we would have hundreds of people in this region who tried to buy guns, and when we did the background check, we found out they were not eligible, either because of their prior criminal behavior, but often because they had a domestic violence order against them.

And we know in this county that weapons, guns, are one of the leading causes of death for women, and it's often a domestic violence situation.

So everything we can do, we have to do to do it.

So I want to thank you all for being here, because we couldn't do it without you.

We really couldn't.

So great to see the Grandmothers Against Gun Violence and everyone else together.

So I'm very proud to be able to sign this resolution.

Why don't you all come up here for it?

Just in time.

Come on up.

How are you?

Good to see you.

Thank you for being here.

Scooch in, guys, all around.

I know, right?

It's a laborious process.

One letter at a time.

One letter at a time.

That's right, it's a good thing I have a short name though, right?

Yeah, that's true.

As long as you have more pens to give away.

That's true.

I could change my name.

You could spell out your full first name.

That's right.

Full middle name.

So before, we are now signed.

And I would also invite Council Member Gonzalez if you want to say something about the importance of this to you and the council.

Yeah, thank you, Mayor.

I really appreciate the cooperation.

And again, this is another example of us working together to make sure that we are taking common sense approaches to really significant public safety issues.

And I think you did a very good job of describing those.

But really, I think, for me, it's important for us to make sure that the values of Seattle voters and residents are are being championed by us as elected leaders and this is one way that we can do that is by making sure that we encourage our constituents to support this initiative and by making sure that we do everything we can to make sure that they're fully educated on the facts of what this initiative does and how this initiative will fundamentally advance public safety for all of our communities here in Seattle and across the state.

So I think this is a a really proud moment for us as a city and I look forward to making sure that voters continue to understand why this law is so critical for us as a city and for the state as a whole.

That's great.

So if there's any questions from the press, if not, I'm going to just give you guys all a big thanks and we'll take it.

All right, good.

Thank you everyone.