By restricting very broadly defined “transfers,” Initiative 594 would shut down gun safety workshops, safe firearm education between friends, volunteer community gun safety programs and many organized scout marksmanship programs statewide.

Volunteers, friends and participants could be charged with gross misdemeanors and felonies under I-594. Will I-594 make you or a member of your own family a criminal, too?

Backers of I-594 are trying to address a legitimate social concern with a sledgehammer. They haven’t considered the very real and serious repercussions of turning firearm safety education — education happening every day in Washington across many groups of all ages — into a crime.

Police in Washington fear how heavy-handed I-594 is, and how much it would put them at risk, personally and professionally. Both the Washington Council of Police and Sheriffs and the Washington State Law Enforcement Firearms Instructor Association are strongly against I-594.

They called I-594 impossible to police, that it criminalizes only good citizens and that it is so broadly written that many of your own activities will become crimes.

We all want to live peacefully in a safe society. I-594, despite its hopeful-sounding title, sparks more problems than it solves. This November, I’m voting no on I-594. I hope you will, too.

Chad Hiatt, Federal Way