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Dr. Melissa Harris-Perry: You're listening to The Takeaway.

I'm Melissa Harris-Perry. It wasn't until 1889 that Washington became a state. While they may have been latecomers to the Union, the Evergreen State has proved to be an early adopter of progressive policy. In 1910, women gained the right to vote in Washington.

That was more than a decade before the 19th Amendment. In 1970, the state legalized abortion, three years before Roe v. Wade. In 2012, Washington along with Colorado became the first state to legalize the recreational use of cannabis, and in 2014, Seattle became the first major city to pass a law incrementally increasing the minimum wage to $15 an hour.

Now, Washington State is helping lead the way on gun policy reform. Now, it's not the first state to ban assault weapons, but in the year with over 200 mass shootings already and growing calls for political leaders to take actions to address gun violence, in late April, Washington's Governor, Jay Inslee, signed into law several pieces of gun policy legislation. One new law bans the sale, distribution, manufacture, and importation of more than 50 assault-style gun models.

Governor Jay Inslee: There is no reason for their use in the State of Washington. No one needs an AR-15 to protect your family, you only need it to kill other families, and for that reason, we are taking action today.

Dr. Melissa Harris-Perry: Earlier this week, I talked with Governor Inslee, and I let him know I was born in Seattle, while my parents were grad students at U-Dub. He offered me a nice virtual welcome home. Governor, thanks for joining us on The Takeaway.

Governor Jay Inslee: You bet. I'm glad you're even remotely in Washington, your birthplace.

Dr. Melissa Harris-Perry: I keep my eyes on the Pacific Northwest, in part, because the State of Washington has a long and venerable tradition as a truly progressive marker in our country. Talk to me a bit about House Bill 1240, which you signed into law.

Governor Jay Inslee: We do pride ourselves in, quite frequently, leading the country with things the country ultimately adopts, and we're doing that on clean energy. We're doing that on protecting a woman's right of choice. We're doing this on access to healthcare, and we've been also leading on trying to prevent gun violence. Our latest step is-- three steps actually. One to prohibit the future sale of assault weapons, one to require safety training before a person gets a firearm, and having a 10-day waiting period.

A third bill that will appropriately hold manufacturers liable when they don't act responsibly in the sale of these weapons. This builds on some of our previous efforts on red flag laws and safe storage laws, and like. I'm glad we're doing this, it makes sense. These are common sense measures. I commend them to the rest of the country.

Dr. Melissa Harris-Perry: Up more than a third, or right around a third of Washingtonians own guns, is after all the West. Will the kinds of measures that you're taking affect the capacity of ordinary citizens to own firearms?

Governor Jay Inslee: No. Listen, assault weapons, they were designed for one purpose, and that is mass murder. They were not designed for protecting your home from coyotes or even burglars. They were meant to have an extremely devastating impact because they have a muzzle velocity of their bullet that's about twice that of a normal firearm. They leave an enormous hole as they exit a person's body, and they have a high capacity for rate of fire as well. These things are designed only as weapons of war. Our people have had a belly full of weapons of war being used in these incidents of mass murder.

Nobody needs these to protect your ranch from a coyote, and these issues about trying to have some modicum of common sense when you get a firearm, to have a 10-day waiting period, for instance, makes sense. Over half of the gun deaths are due to suicide, and having some waiting period, to some degree, can sometimes allow a family to intercede. These are common sense measures. They do not intrude in what you would consider normal use of a firearm and they are widely supported across the State of Washington.

Dr. Melissa Harris-Perry: Of course, the thing that terrifies us in the world-- I'm a parent. The thing that terrifies us in the world are the assault-style weapons, the idea of them being used against us or against our loved ones in some public place, but they still form a smaller fraction of deaths by gun. I'm wondering how you see the other legislative efforts relative to this point that people are still more likely to take their own lives by gun.

Governor Jay Inslee: We're coming to understand this as a public health challenge, as well as one involving crime. We're always looking for ways to help people think through the risks associated with firearms. It's one of the reasons for the safety training, to get people to understand that, to understand, you're actually more likely to injure yourself, or your family members are more likely to be injured than some intruder in your home. This 10-day waiting period is part of that, as well. These are what you want to think of as public health efforts against a public health crisis of suicide.

These bills as a suite of bills, I think have approached this to do the multiple things we need to do. I think that's an important point too, is that, against gun violence, there's not one solution, there's not one action, there are many. The reason I point that out is so many people say, "Well, assault weapon bills won't stop all gun violence, so we should do nothing." I just think it's reverse. We need to do many things. We need to increase access to mental health. We need to get people mental health treatment when they need it.

We need some additional law enforcement resources that are appropriately trained to do de-escalation and the like. These are all of things in a multifaceted strategy to try to reduce this gun violence.

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Dr. Melissa Harris-Perry: Quick break right here, we're back with new gun policy out of the State of Washington right after this. Okay, you're back. We're still with Governor Jay Inslee, from the State of Washington. In the State of Illinois, we've seen what look like common sense gun measures often be undermined by the state just to the east, Indiana, and the flow of weapons across the border from Indiana to Illinois. When you are looking at a map where you are so close to Idaho, pretty near to Montana, how do you think about the question of whether or not you can create some safety within the state?

Governor Jay Inslee: The first thing I would say is that this may not prevent every single assault weapon from someone sneaking it across our border. We understand that, but again, this comes back to just because you can't solve all problems, you shouldn't do nothing. These have been shown to be effective state by state. It would certainly help if we had a national law on this, as I supported in 1994. I voted for the Assault Weapon Bill in 1994. Lost my seat, in part because of that, but I've never regretted that vote.

It did have an impact of reducing the frequency of mass murders for the 10 years it was in effect. Yes, it would be better if we had a federal law, but it should not prevent us from taking action because I do believe it will have a benefit, as I've indicated.

Dr. Melissa Harris-Perry: Let's go out into the future 10 years and look back. Assuming the bill holds up in the courts, what are some of the metrics you'll be looking at to say, "All right, what we did a decade ago mattered in the State of Washington."

Governor Jay Inslee: Maybe I look a little different. I'm looking at beautiful Mount Rainier right now, our beautiful 14,000-foot mountain covered by glaciers. When you're climbing a mountain, I did climb that a while back, you measure success step by step. It's a victory to take one more step, and that's how I look at this. These are not the ultimate answer to gun violence, they're steps in a long progress. To me, reducing the amount of violence by one life would be worth it. If my whole career could save one life, it would be a very gratifying journey. I believe these measures will save multiple lives, and that will be a success.

Dr. Melissa Harris-Perry: Some of that life-saving work might happen in a somewhat different way. We think of gun violence as this immediate and violent threat, but so much of your work has been around climate policy. What is going to feel like success for you a decade out on that issue?

Governor Jay Inslee: To some degree, I feel success now. We've now adopted what I believe is the nation's most aggressive actions to decarbonize our economy and is having such tremendous success. We have a tremendous capital invest bill which is making investments to help frequently disproportionately impacted communities as well. We were the first state this last fall to essentially make it unnecessary to hook up to fossil gas, used to be called natural gas, but it's a very polluting type of fuel, and we're creating jobs in my state just like crazy.

I went and saw the first and largest commercial-scale hydrogen fuel cell airplane, 76 seater under development in Everett the other day. I went to Moses Lake where we're developing the silicon anode battery with two companies in South Seattle. They have a fuel cell perfectly clean driving the largest truck in the world. We're just rocking it when it comes to new industries, new jobs across our state. To some degree, I consider this very substantial success to date, but having set that course, we need to decarbonize our economy. That means transportation, and ultimately, our industrial sector.

We're doing that very, very rapidly in transportation, and we're finding new solutions to industrial pollution as well. It will be a world where we've decarbonized largely our economy, and my grandchildren will look back in this decade and think, "They really got it and Washington led the country in giving us a chance." That'll be a success. I don't know if I'll be around to actually recognize that, but I'm proud of the work we're doing here right now to give my great-grandchildren a chance to see glaciers on Mount Rainier and salmon in our rivers and forests that don't burn down so badly that you can't breathe. That'll be a success.

Dr. Melissa Harris-Perry: In recent days, you've announced that you will not seek a fourth term, will not run for re-election. You as one of the longest-standing, maybe the longest-serving Democratic governor in the country, what do you think is happening right now with the Democratic Party's capacity to really be influential at the state level, which is, of course, where so much of the most impactful policy happens?

Governor Jay Inslee: I am proud to be a Democratic governor because I'm a member of a cadre of governors that are doing fantastic work. We're protecting women's right to choice where that is not happening on a national level. We are moving forward on climate change as other governors are well. Michelle Lujan Grisham, Gavin Newsom are doing great work in climate. We're moving on gun safety as Governor Polis of Colorado. We're moving on transportation infrastructure like Gretchen Whitmer in Michigan.

We just have a whole bunch of Democratic governors that are leading the country on things that cannot get done on the federal level at the moment. I'm very hard on Democratic governors, and I hope to help them as many places as I can.

Dr. Melissa Harris-Perry: What is next for you?

Governor Jay Inslee: I have 20 months to be governor of State of Washington. I'm very excited about our continued effort against our homelessness crisis. I'm excited about a new effort to provide mental health in a way that is much more effective. I got some great work as governor. After that, who knows? The sky's the limit, I presume it will be something that will help continue our effort to decarbonize our economy, to grow jobs, to find a way to give our kids a chance against climate change. That is an abiding passion of mine. I'll figure out some way to be productive. Stay tuned.

Dr. Melissa Harris-Perry: Jay Inslee is the governor of Washington. Governor Inslee, thank you so much for taking the time with us today.

Governor Jay Inslee: You bet. Y'all come back now.

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