While Seattle Mayor Ed Murray has given the nod of approval to creating “safe” sites so drug addicts can use illegal drugs, he has worked to make it harder for law-abiding citizens to exercise their Second Amendment rights.
Murray last week defended the city’s “sanctuary” philosophy as President Donald Trump signed a new executive order cracking down on such cities.
Now Seattle is making headlines for being the first city in the United States to approve a “safe injection site” for drug addicts. This happens while Seattle continues its so-called “gun violence tax.”
So, while the city evidently wants to discourage gun owners and does not seem alarmed that one profitable gun store has moved its operation out of the city, the mayor is backing an idea sure to encourage illegal drug users to head for Seattle.
The Washington Post noted Friday that such sites, “are not currently legal under federal law, according to Kelly Dineen, a professor of health law at Saint Louis University School of Law. A provision of the Controlled Substances Act makes it illegal to operate facilities where drugs are used, she said.”
Adding to what appears to be monumental hypocrisy, the Post reported that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said “a record 33,000 people died from opioid overdoses in 2015. Opioids now kill more people each year than car accidents. In 2015, the number of heroin deaths nationwide surpassed the number of deaths from gun homicides.”
But if one were to ask Murray, he would likely say guns are a bigger problem, as he did last week when referring to crimes committed by illegal aliens.
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Report for 2015, there were 13,455 murders in the United States that year. Of those, 9,616 were committed with firearms, so for the Washington Post to report that the number of heroin deaths surpassed the number of gun-related homicides might be considered an understatement.
While still serving in the State Senate in 2013, Murray sponsored a bill to ban so-called “assault weapons,” but in 2015, rifles of any kind were used in only three of Washington State’s 209 total murders. Shotguns were used in five more that year, according to the FBI data.
That’s not an epidemic of firearms-related violence, while the Washington Post noted that in 2015, King County – where Seattle is located – reported 132 heroin overdose deaths. That’s almost as many deaths as the 141 firearms homicides in the entire state that year.
Is Murray attacking the wrong problem?
Related:
‘Issue is Guns, Not Immigration’ says Seattle Mayor; CCRKBA Pounces
WA Lawmakers Want to Micromanage Firearms Storage…Again
