The state of Washington is preparing for as many as 6,000 gun-rights advocates to attend a rally at the Capitol on Saturday.
The gun rights event has been dubbed the “I will not comply” rally. Participants plan to freely exchange guns in protest of Washington’s new, voter-approved background check law. It requires criminal checks for most person-to-person sales and transfers of firearms.
The State Patrol has said it doesn’t plan to arrest participants who hand each other their guns, but the Patrol will be on hand. There is no law against carrying a gun on Washington’s Capitol campus.
Parents of two of the victims of the 2012 school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut issued a statement via the group Sandy Hook Promise. Nicole Hockley and Mark Barden say they support Washington’s new law and they question the timing of the event just one day before the anniversary of the school shooting that left 20 students and six adults dead.
