BELLEVUE, WA –-(Ammoland.com)- The Second Amendment Foundation is disappointed that federal Judge Benjamin H. Settle today dismissed without prejudice our lawsuit challenging provisions of Initiative 594, the 18-page gun control measure passed in Washington State last November.
However, SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb noted that in reaching his decision, Judge Settle acknowledged that “The Court is sympathetic to Plaintiffs in that one must actually be prosecuted or under actual or immediate threat of prosecution before the Court may address the constitutionality of a statute.” The judge further observed that “the fairness of this rule may definitely be questioned…”
“It is mind boggling that a law-abiding citizen evidently must put their civil rights, not to mention their clean criminal record, at risk before a court can rule whether a law is constitutional,” Gottlieb observed.
“It is definitely unfair, and we believe every American will think it unfair that someone has to be chained and incarcerated before they are allowed to challenge an attack on their constitutional rights.
“Because the state has refused to prosecute violators does not diminish the constitutional threat of this law,” he stressed. “This is 2015, not the Dark Ages.
“However,” Gottlieb said, “If the state is willing to sign a consent decree that they will not prosecute any citizen under I-594 who is not prohibited from owning firearms, we will consider not filing an appeal.”
Gottlieb and his legal team will continue to pursue justice in this case.
The Second Amendment Foundation (www.saf.org) is the nation’s oldest and largest tax-exempt education, research, publishing and legal action group focusing on the Constitutional right and heritage to privately own and possess firearms. Founded in 1974, The Foundation has grown to more than 650,000 members and supporters and conducts many programs designed to better inform the public about the consequences of gun control.
In civil law there is a principle called latches. It says that if a right to pursue something legally is not pursued, that right is lost.