Spin Control: Before Pretti’s killing gave the issue new relevance, legal guns at protests were fairly common at the state Capitol

Since the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti by Customs and Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis last month, supporters of the administration have countered with an argument that no one should bring a firearm to a protest.

In interviews with reporters, some who question Pretti’s motives for being armed, despite the fact that he had a valid carry permit, have even asked “Well, would you bring a gun to a protest?”

I haven’t been asked this, but if I had, the answer would be “No,” followed by the qualifier “I don’t own a gun to bring.” Reporters who do own guns might still answer in the negative, considering the equipment that they need – notebooks, pens, recorders, cameras, phones and laptops – might not allow a free hand even were they so inclined.

But for those who seem incredulous at the very idea of bringing a gun to a protest, I’d point out that I saw armed protesters, many times, on the Capitol campus in Olympia. Almost every year from the time I started covering the Legislature full-time in 2010 to the time I turned the keys to the newspaper’s Olympia bureau office over to my replacement in 2021, gun-rights groups would stage a rally in support of the Second Amendment at the Capitol.

Sometimes they would gather en masse on the lawn around the Tivoli Fountain or fill the North Steps to the domed Legislative Building. Some even came as a family unit, a father, mother and teen offspring attending with their weapon of choice.

They waved signs, hoisted yellow flags with coiled rattlesnakes, or white flags with AR-15s and Greek letters that translate into “come and take them.” (That’s supposedly what Spartan King Leonidas said to Xerxes when the Persian emperor ordered the Greeks to turn over their swords at Thermopylae).

All manner of handguns, rifles and semiautomatic weaponry could be seen strapped to belts, slung from shoulders or grasped in hands. Sometimes they would enter the Legislative Building, still armed, while lawmakers were debating bills on the chamber floor.

It was a quirk of the rules for the Legislative Building that one could openly carry a rifle inside, but was required to disassemble their protest signs by removing a placard from a stick, leaving the latter outside before entering. In response protesters sometimes taped their signs to their rifles.

It didn’t usually concern me to be surrounded by guns at a protest. Most protestors seemed competent and well-acquainted with their firearms. The most nervous I ever got was when a protester armed with a broadsword, rather than a firearm, told me it was a replica of the one used by Mel Gibson in “Braveheart,” which he described as his favorite historical movie. Having recently visited Scotland, I happened to mention that the people there think the movie is a lot of crap, and he took offense. Fortunately, it’s easier to quickly separate oneself from a person with a broadsword than an AR-15.

Until 2015, one could even bring a firearm into the galleries that overlook the chambers, although that stopped after an armed observer in the House gallery made a point of chambering a round, then ejecting it onto the floor. In 2021, the Legislature passed a law that banned open carry in the Capitol, and within 250 feet of a demonstration. But even though Washington has some of the strictest gun-control laws in the country, it allows people with valid concealed weapon permits to be armed at a protest.

Strong supporters of the Second Amendment always speak up loudly and forcefully whenever any gun restrictions are proposed. It’s a bit surprising that some aren’t as loud and forceful to suggestions that Pretti was somehow in the wrong for having a handgun on his person when he was in a public place.

Please don’t

name that tune

The Legislature is likely to vote in the coming weeks on a bill to name the bluntnose sixgill shark as the official state shark of Washington. This despite the fact that Washington already has an official state fish, the steelhead. It also has another finny denizen of the deep, the orca, as its official state marine mammal.

One shudders to think of the official state conundrum in a case where an orca, which is chasing a steelhead for a light snack, should run afoul of a bluntnose sixgill shark. For whom do we root?

This shark, which inhabits the Puget Sound, can grow to 20 feet and has the support of marine biologists, as well as elementary and middle schoolers from around Western Washington who are learning about their government in general and the legislative process in particular.

One can only hope, however, that the students were not watching online last week as the House State Government Committee met to decide whether the proposal should be sent to the full House. In making the motion for a vote on the bill, Rep. Darya Farivar, D-North Seattle, borrowed the tune from one of the most annoying earworms of this century.

“Sixgill Shark do-do-do-ta-do, Sixgill Shark do-do-do-ta-do, Sixgill Shark. / Voooote Yes do-do-do-ta-do, Voooote Yes do-do-do-ta-do, Vooote Yes.”

It passed unanimously. Not clear if it was because of Farivar’s singing or in spite of it.