WASHINGTON: Anti-Gay Politician Charged After Road Rage Incident With Gun

Spokane's Spokesman-Review reported on Sunday that GOP state Rep. Matt Shea, one of Washington's most virulently anti-gay legislators and the co-founder of Protect Marriage Washington, was charged in November with violating state firearms laws after a driver claimed Shea pointed a gun at him in an incident police described as road rage.

Republican Matt Shea, a state representative seeking a third term this fall, had a handgun in his pickup truck and had let his concealed weapons permit expire, a violation of state law, when he was contacted by Spokane police investigating reports of erratic driving and one driver threatening another with a handgun. Shea eventually was charged with a single firearm count – having a loaded handgun in a vehicle without a concealed weapons permit – which will be dismissed next January if he has no further criminal violations before then, according to documents from the Spokane Municipal Court that were sent to The Spokesman-Review by someone with no apparent connection to his opponent’s campaign.

Commenters on the above-linked story claim that news of the gun incident has only just surfaced because Washington's state primary is in two weeks. It's a liberal plot! (The newspaper entered the comments to deny that charge.)

RELATED: In 2008 Shea's wife was granted a divorce after claiming physical and emotional abuse. In her divorce filing, his now ex-wife claimed that he made her walk on his left side because if he wore a sword, it would be on his right. SRSLY! During this February's Washington House debate on same-sex marriage, he declared, "This country was not founded on sexual liberty, Mr. Speaker. It was founded on religious liberty. Where those two clash, religious liberty should always win out. And swords go on the right!" (I may have altered that last bit.)