[Jeff Higgins]

Washington state used to be a very strong bastion of 2nd Amendment support. Our state Constitution has much clearer verbiage regarding the people's right to keep and bear arms than the United States Constitution. We are a "shall issue" state with strong preemption laws to boot.

Kind of hard to believe with how the state has swung politically in the last couple of decades - state politicians have said out loud that "we" (actually they) would like to model many state laws after those of California (you know, since they have been such a raging success down there). Thank God for a state Constitution and preemption laws.

That Constitution and those laws were written back when Washington was a predominantly rural, blue collar logging, fishing, and then airplane building state. The massive influx of displaced Silicon Valley escapees, techies, yuppies, and other such hand-wringing ninny tree-huggers have not yet been able to tear down that foundation, although they keep trying. Until then, Washington state will enjoy some of the most reasonable concealed (and open) carry laws in the nation.

Of course, ultimately though, Ted Nugent is right - "the Second Amendment is my carry permit"...