A column in today's Seattle Post-Intelligencer by the board president of Washington Ceasefire, Ralph Fascitelli:

This month the U.S. Supreme Court addresses the Washington, D.C., gun ban and with it, the Second Amendment, which deals with the rights of an individual to own a gun.

It is a moot point for residents of Washington, where state law clearly guarantees one's right to own a gun without the ambiguity of a "within a state militia" qualifying clause. The question here is not whether individuals have a right to own a gun but whether they have a good reason and what rules and regulations should be applied.

The ongoing rhetorical battle over the Second Amendment should not obscure the immense problem we face with gun violence in this state. Each week we lose about a dozen people to gun violence and dozens more are injured. Since 9/11 more people have died in Washington from guns than died on that fateful day. Gun violence is everybody's problem and has been estimated to cost the state $2 billion annually or more than $1,000 per household in higher taxes, insurance charges and health care costs.

Washington Ceasefire believes we can reduce the almost 600 annual gun deaths in this state in half over the next decade with a few common-sense measures.

First, think twice before you have a gun in the home, and know the facts. Households with guns have a five times greater chance of a completed suicide; consider that on average we lose one person a day in this state to suicide with a gun.

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