Gun rights supporters stage an 'I will not comply' rally in Washington state

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Following a tradition going back to at least the Whiskey Rebellion of the early 1790s, demonstrators gathered here Saturday afternoon at the Capitol to protest the tyranny of what they consider unlawful American government.

But instead of decrying a tax on distilled liquor such as Pennsylvanians did just years after the U.S. Constitution was ratified, demonstrators here at the “I Will Not Comply” rally denounced a law expanding gun-purchase background checks that was approved last month by Washington voters.

Initiative 594, which voters passed by a 19-point margin, expands background checks to people buying firearms in private sales or exchanging them in a transfer.

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“The people that are trying to take our guns are the ones that are causing events where children and families and people are lost,” said Seim, who ran unsuccessfully this year for U.S. Congress.

Washington State Patrol put the crowd at about 1,000 people; Seim estimated 1,500.

While on stage, Seim burned his state concealed-weapons permit and advocated that people should buy tanks and bazookas if they wanted them.

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At a booth sporting an LGBT pride rainbow design, demonstrators picked up rifles in what they said was an illegal transfer of a gun from one person to another under I-594.

But the State Patrol, which policed the event, had announced that it could not prove such an action violated the law and would not arrest people for handing firearms to each other.

There were no arrests or other issues during Saturday’s demonstration, according to Trooper Guy Gill.

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