Political sparks are flying in Seattle, Washington because of remarks made two years ago by a man who is reportedly a top contender to become the city’s next police chief.
Shon Barnes, currently police chief in Madison, Wisconsin—the scene of a fatal school shooting at a private Christian school—was speaking with a reporter from a Madison television station when he was asked about a mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas. At that point, Barnes addressed the fact that the killer in that incident had purchased two firearms.
“I understand it was legal, but is it right?,” Barnes questioned. “We have a lot of things that are legal, but is it the right thing to do? We have to rise above that. And sometimes it requires an evolution of our thinking. What was written in 1789 may not be appropriate for 2022 unless we’re okay with kids being killed.”
The comment made hot copy at MyNorthwest.com, where Seattle talk host Jason Rantz of KTTH called it, “a tired response that the Radical Left routinely uses while conveniently ignoring the purpose and enduring relevance of our Constitution.”
Rantz had previously written about Barnes’ involvement in some controversies in Madison and Chicago, where he had been a finalist for the job of that city’s police department.
But there was another reaction to Barnes’ remarks, and it came from Alan Gottlieb at the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, coincidentally headquartered in nearby Bellevue, which sits directly across Lake Washington from Seattle.
“Simply because society may have evolved since the Bill of Rights was ratified does not mean we should surrender the right of self-defense, much less the right to keep and bear arms,” Gottlieb bristled. “If Barnes is selected to lead the Seattle Police Department, he should understand the rank-and-file supports the Second Amendment, and that since the city began pushing its gun control agenda ten years ago, the number of homicides has nearly tripled. We’re never ‘okay’ with kids getting killed. In fact, we’re not okay with anyone getting killed.
“We are also alarmed,” he added, “that if Barnes thinks the Second Amendment may not be appropriate, what other rights does he think are outdated? What about the Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches and Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination?”
Barnes’ remarks could actually improve his chances of getting the nod from Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell, who is no friend to gun owners. He has lobbied to undo Washington’s model firearms preemption law, which dates back four decades and has been upheld by state court rulings.
Soon after Harrell took office in 2022, he held a press conference about getting local control of gun laws. At that briefing, he told reporters “We’re one of the few states that has that kind of restriction allowing the state to govern the laws we need for our city of Seattle.”
At the time, Gottlieb publicly rebutted the mayor’s claim, commenting, “Forty-two states have preemption laws, and that is hardly ‘a few’ states, as Harrell would have the public believe. Washington was among the first to adopt this law in 1983, and its statute has been used as a model by other states when they adopted similar statutes because they all saw the common sense of gun law uniformity.
“Harrell and other anti-gunners would have us roll back the calendar to a time when a literal state of confusion existed in Washington,” Gottlieb said at the time. “Before preemption was wisely adopted by the State Legislature, we had a checkerboard of often conflicting local gun regulations. State lawmakers properly took control of this mess and cleaned it up with a single set of regulations that apply equally from the Canada border to the Columbia River.”
According to his Linkedin profile, Barnes has served with the Greensboro, N.C. Police Department where he served 18 years and became a captain. From there he became deputy chief of the Salisbury, NC Police Department in 2017. He served in Salisbury for more than three years before being hired as the police chief in Madison.
