Yesterday, Washington Governor Jay Inslee signed three new gun control bills into law including a broadly written “assault weapons” ban. As the AP wrote . . .
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee signed a trio of bills meant to address gun violence Tuesday, one banning the sale of certain semi-automatic rifles, one imposing a 10-day waiting period on firearms purchases and one clearing the way for lawsuits against gun makers or sellers in certain cases.
A crowd of gun-control activists and Democratic lawmakers broke into cheers as Inslee signed the measures, which he said would not solve all gun violence but would save lives.
“Just because they don’t solve all the problems does not mean the state of Washington does not take action,” Inslee said. “Inaction against gun violence is unacceptable.”
Literally minutes after Inslee affixed his signature to the bills, the Firearms Policy Coalition and the Second Amendment Foundation filed a lawsuit challenging the new restrictions.
From the FPC’s press release . . .
Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) announced that it has filed a federal Second Amendment lawsuit challenging the State of Washington’s unconstitutional ban on so-called “assault weapons,” minutes after it was signed into law by Governor Jay Inslee. Case documents for Hartford v. Ferguson are available atFPCLaw.org.
“The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms.” U.S. Const. amend. II. This Amendment guarantees a fundamental right to keep and bear common firearms for defense of self and family and for other lawful pursuits.’” The Complaint states. “But the State has enacted, and Defendants have authority to enforce, a flat prohibition on the manufacture, import, distribution, sale, and offering for sale of many common firearms—tendentiously labeled “assault weapons”—by ordinary citizens (“the Washington Ban”), making it a crime for law-abiding citizens to exercise their fundamental right to keep and bear such arms. In so doing, the State of Washington has criminalized one of the most common and important means by which its citizens can exercise their fundamental right to self-defense. By banning manufacturing, importation, distribution, and sale of common semiautomatic rifles, the State has barred law-abiding residents from legally acquiring common rifles and has deprived them of an effective means of self-defense and their fundamental individual right to keep and bear arms.”
“Today’s filing is yet another step forward in FPC’s aggressive multi-state litigation campaign against those states that attempt to enforce immoral and unconstitutional restrictions on protected arms,” said FPC Director of Legal Operations Bill Sack. “Washington State lawmakers are playing politics with the natural and constitutional rights of their constituents. FPC will tirelessly work to undo these efforts that undermine the fundamental rights of the People.”
FPC is joined in this lawsuit by the Second Amendment Foundation.
The NSSF didn’t let the latest blue state gun rights infringement go unnoticed either.
NSSF, The Firearm Industry Trade Association, condemns Washington Gov. Jay Inslee’s signature of HB 1240, the law that bans the sale and transfer of Modern Sporting Rifles (MSRs) and many other firearms. The law is clearly unconstitutional under the U.S. Supreme Court’s holdings in both the Heller and Bruen decisions. NSSF will file a legal challenge to this law with Clement & Murphy, PLLC.
“There is no doubt that this law signed by Gov. Jay Inslee unconstitutionally denies Second Amendment rights to law-abiding citizens in Washington state,” said Lawrence G. Keane, NSSF Senior Vice President & General Counsel. “NSSF worked in good faith with state legislators to warn them that this legislation runs afoul of Constitutionally-guaranteed Second Amendment rights to possess commonly owned firearms. Governor Inslee and Washington’s Attorney General Bob Ferguson put politics ahead of their duty to defend the Constitution and protect the rights of their citizens. NSSF will immediately sue Attorney General Ferguson to have this law declared unconstitutional.”
And Tacoma-based Aero Precision issued this statement . . .
There will be more information to come on our actions here. At this time, we won’t be answering further questions on this topic in a public forum. We are still working to figure this all out and are deeply saddened it has come to this.
— Aero Precision (@aero_precision) April 25, 2023
