Despite recent Supreme Court decisions that protect and enhance our natural rights to self-defense, the once moderate State of Washington is in the process of passing radical, sweeping gun control.
In recent years, we have seen the Seattle-area descend into a chaos of drugs, violence, homelessness, and insane politics. But it hasn’t always been that way.
Historically, Washington has been well-governed. They had no state income tax long before other states started to eliminate theirs. They also had relatively pro-gun laws as well as pro-business, pro-liberty, and strong election laws and policies.
That began to change in the 1990’s as Seattle became the “it” town, grunge ruled the charts and young people flocked to its vibrant musical and cultural scene. Unfortunately, they also brought crazy left politics.
In the 30 years since, the city, and by extension, the whole state, has shifted radically to the left, with all of the expected results.
So it shouldn’t be a surprise that today, the poverty line in Seattle for a family of four is $80,000, the police are hollowed-out and demoralized, drug zombie wander the streets assaulting tourists and residents alike, and the state senate just passed the most draconian and transparently unconstitutional gun restrictions in the nation.
How Bad Is It?
The new legislation has passed both chambers and is currently only being held up by a house debate over a single proposed amendment. Governor Jay Inslee has enthusiastically promised to sign it. So what does H.B 1240 do?
Simple put, H.B. 1240 defines assault weapons (poorly), and bans them.
More specifically, over 60 specific types of guns including all AR- and AK-style models and all pistols with, I kid you not, a detachable magazine.
It goes further to ban any semi-auto rifle under 30”, and any semi-automatic firearm with a muzzle brake, pistol grip, shroud, telescoping stock, supplemental hand grip, or threaded barrel.
But wait! There’s more…
The law also bans most shotguns as it makes common features such as pistol grips, protruding grips, folding stocks, thumbhole stocks, telescoping stocks, revolving cylinders, and fixed magazines with over 7 rounds illegal.
More generally, the bill also bans magazines with capacities greater than 10 rounds for all firearms, and many accessories including all conversion kits.
And finally, a piece of companion legislation, H.B. 1143, expands the state’s already passed 10 day waiting period for semi-automatic rifles to all guns.
Of course, this is all wildly unconstitutional and these laws, when signed, will flow into the already rich world of Washington State gun-related lawsuits.
The gun grabbers who voted for this monstrosity are hanging their hats on the dubious legal theory that the Supreme Court’s Bruen decision doesn’t extent to semi-automatic weapons. Good luck with that.
I think they know this is a loser. At the end of the day, this legislation may be more about virtue signaling to gun-grabbing supporters than it is about gun control.
Now What?
The state house has until April 23 to resolve the pending amendment and send the final legislation to Governor Inslee’s desk. Once signed, Washington-based Gun Owners of America and others have promised immediate litigation.
In the meantime, Washington legislators will have made their own citizens second-class Americans with fewer rights and less protection than the rest of us, and they’ll do it in the face of clear Supreme Court guidance that this law is thoroughly unconstitutional.
Washington claims this legislation is necessary due to an “epidemic” of gun violence. But a quick Google search reveals that in 2019 Washington had 165 gun homicides compared to over 1200 drug overdoses. Despite this, Washington continues to liberalize drug laws while restricting Constitutionally protected rights.
When something doesn’t make sense, it’s usually politics. We’re not going to get further into that, but the trajectory of Washington’s voters reflects the cultural and constitutional rot we see on the streets of Seattle and in the halls of power in Olympia.
Hopefully, the courts will quickly reverse this travesty.
Researched and written by the American Gun Facts team. We are a group of Americans dedicated to providing factual information on firearms and fighting back against attempts to weaken or discard the Second Amendment. We write on topics ranging from firearm statistics, news, reviews, and more! AGF has been featured in the New York Times, NBC, MSN, Time, & many other publications.
