August 27, 2026

Seattle Mayor’s Viral Dance Puts City’s Gun-Control Contradictions on Display

By Larry Keane

Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson spent years advocating progressive policing approaches and public safety that went hand-in-glove with her gun control vision. Now, just months into her first term, an “impromptu boogie” is putting Seattle’s contradictions over crime and gun control on full display.

Mayor Wilson is facing criticism after appearing in a social media video dancing alongside Seattle rapper Y2K, whose other videos feature firearms, masked individuals, drug references and lyrics referencing a “switch” on a pistol. Machinegun conversion devices (MCDs), commonly called “switches,” illegally convert semiautomatic firearms into fully automatic machineguns. NSSF warns gun owners to stay on the Right Side of Legal™ when modifying firearms, that includes not illegally converting semiautomatic firearms into automatic.

Mayor Wilson’s office said the encounter was spontaneous and she did not know the rapper or his other content.

The irony is hard to ignore, especially given that Seattle is suing GLOCK because criminals glorified by rap artist illegally possess MCDs and install them on legally manufactured and sold pistols.

From ‘Defund’ to City Hall

Before becoming mayor, Mayor Wilson spent more than a decade as a progressive organizer, co-founding and leading the Transit Riders Union. She identifies as a democratic socialist and, in 2020, publicly advocated defunding the Seattle Police Department.

During her 2025 mayoral campaign, Mayor Wilson acknowledged her views had changed, conceding supporters of the movement were wrong to assume alternative responders meant Seattle could simply reduce the police force accordingly.

Seattle learned that lesson the hard way.

Police staffing fell from 1,424 commissioned officers in 2017 to 1,012 in 2024. The city has since worked to rebuild the department, hiring 165 officers in 2025.

Crime Fell. The Problem Didn’t Disappear.

There is good news in Seattle’s latest crime numbers. Overall crime fell 18 percent in 2025. Homicides dropped 36 percent, from 58 in 2024 to 37, while the number of people struck by gunfire also declined 36 percent.

Those improvements matter. They also largely occurred before Mayor Wilson took office.

Seattle’s own Office of City Auditor warned in 2025 that criminal gun violence had increased significantly over the previous decade, including a sustained increase in shootings following the pandemic. Recent shootings involving teenagers make clear the city has no reason to declare victory.

Mayor Wilson has committed $14.7 million to community-based violence intervention efforts this year, saying Seattle must turn “hope into action.”

That makes the viral video more than an embarrassing social media moment. It highlights the disconnect between Seattle’s years-long fixation on restricting lawful firearm ownership and the criminal behavior driving violence in its communities.

The Law Isn’t the Problem

Here is the part Seattle’s gun control politicians repeatedly miss. A criminal possessing an MCD isn’t suffering from a shortage of gun control laws.

MCDs are already illegal under federal law. Possessing an unregistered machinegun is a federal crime. Someone willing to illegally acquire and possess one isn’t waiting for another background check, magazine restriction or firearm prohibition before deciding whether to disobey the law.

Washington, meanwhile, already imposes some of the nation’s most restrictive firearm laws on citizens who do obey them. Seattle has layered additional restrictions on lawful firearm businesses and gun owners.

NSSF has pointed out this contradiction before. Seattle embraced calls to defund police and increasingly restrictive gun control policies while crime drove businesses and residents to reconsider whether the city could keep them safe. The answer to criminal misuse of firearms was never to make lawful ownership more difficult. It is to hold criminals accountable.

Mayor Wilson says she wants Seattle’s young people to grow up free from the fear of criminal gun violence. Everyone should share that goal.

Getting there requires more than hope — or another gun control law aimed at people already following the rules. It requires sufficient police staffing, meaningful enforcement and prosecution of violent offenders and criminals illegally possessing firearms and machinegun conversion devices.

Seattle’s mayor can dance around the awkward optics of one viral video. She can’t dance around that distinction.

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