WA Gun Law organization refutes statewide assault weapon ban

Gov. Jay Inslee and Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced a bill to ban assault weapons at a news conference in Tukwila earlier this week, all while proposing for gun manufacturers to aid in firearm safety.

“I’ve been predicting a lot of this, nothing really actually came as a shock to me,” said Attorney William Kirk with Washington Gun Law on The Jason Rantz Show on KTTH. “We’ve been able to kind of read the tea leaves, take a look at some old legislation that had kicked around in Olympia in the past, take a look at what the some of the politicians were very boldly and brashly stating. One other thing is that this particular governor in Washington state has never come up with an original idea yet.”

Washington Gun Law is a statewide resource to help restore gun ownership laws, identify which firearms can be owned within the state, and tackle any legal issues.

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“When it comes to gun control legislation, what you really need to do is just look around to some of the other bluer states in the country, see what they’re trying, and then recognize that Jay Inslee and Bob Ferguson will eventually adopt a quite similar plan somewhere along the way,” Kirk continued.

The Firearm Industry Responsibility & Gun Violence Victims Access to Justice Act would enable firearm manufacturers and sellers to face liability if “they fail to establish, implement and enforce reasonable controls in the manufacture, sale, distribution, and marketing of firearms,” according to the Attorney General’s Office.

The bill is to ensure that victims have access to justice when the firearms industry fails to keep firearms out of the hands of dangerous individuals. It was sponsored by Sen. Jamie Pedersen and Rep. David Hackney, both Democrats.

But Kirk interpreted this bill as blue states “thumbing their nose” at the rule of law.

“What we’re seeing in Washington, what we’re seeing in Oregon, what we’re seeing in California, New York, New Jersey, our state’s just basically throwing a middle finger at the Supreme Court and saying, ‘well watch this, we’re going to do it anyways,’” Kirk said. “Do I think that most of these laws can pass constitutional muster? Not at all.”

Similar to the high-capacity magazine ban last year, the bill will not ban the possession of assault weapons. Inslee called assault-style firearms “weapons of war” at the press conference.

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“Anytime you’re seeing gun control legislation paraded out for the first time, any proponent of it is going to bring out all the horror stories that they can do. And they’ll tell you as many horrible stories as they can, they’ll never connect how their legislation is going to actually prevent this from happening again in the future,” Kirk said.

Listen to the Jason Rantz Show weekday afternoons from 3 – 6 p.m. on KTTH 770 AM (or HD Radio 97.3 FM HD-Channel 3). Subscribe to the podcast here.