Washington Police Chief Who Refused to Enforce Gun Control Running for Governor
Richard Moorhead
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A Washington state police chief who took a stand in refusing to enforce elements of the state’s widely encompassing new gun control package is now running for Governor of the state. He’s making a pledge to restore the gun rights of Washingtonians a central message of his campaign.
Loren Culp is the police chief of Republic, Washington. He was praised by gun owners and vilified by liberal prosecutors for his constitutional refusal to enforce parts of a massive gun control law enacted in 2018.
Washington’s Initiative 1639 places a draconian new licensing system on purchase and ownership of semiautomatic rifles, in addition to other gun control measures, such as mandating byzantine “safe storage” measures that require gun owners to acquire incredibly expensive firearm safes.
Officer Culp has also taken a courageous stand in support of young gun owners, who are often targeted by anti-gun liberals and left out to dry by some establishment elements of the gun rights community. Culp has refused to enforce I-1639’s provision banning otherwise law-abiding gun owners under the age of 21 from owning semiautomatic rifles.
The career law enforcement officer has also proposed making the town of Republic an official ‘Second Amendment Sanctuary,’ protecting its largely conservative residents from further efforts by liberals in Olympia to erode rural Washington’s tradition of responsible gun ownership.
He’s described his gubernatorial campaign as a “David vs. Goliath effort,” and he’ll hope to muster his base of support from rural Washingtonians alienated from the state’s coastal political establishment. Should he receive the Republican nomination, he’ll face sitting Governor Jay Inslee, who recently dropped out of the Democratic presidential primary.
Culp stands poised to gain considerable support from Washington’s decently-sized population of gun owners. Washington’s a liberal state, but it’s possible conservative Republicans could make inroads in the state government, challenging the Evergreen state’s reigning Democratic establishment.
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