BELLEVUE, WA – -(AmmoLand.com)- A Snohomish County, WA Superior Court judge has ruled that a 2018-passed ordinance in the City of Edmonds requiring so-called “safe storage” of firearms “impermissibly regulates firearms in violation” of Washington’s 36-year-old preemption law, in a lawsuit filed by the Second Amendment Foundation and National Rifle Association.
SAF and NRA are joined by three private citizens, Brett Bass, Curtis McCullough and Swan Seaberg.
Judge Anita Farris handed down the ruling, possibly setting the stage for a state Supreme Court showdown. In a separate case, filed by SAF and NRA against the City of Seattle in neighboring King County, a different judge ruled the opposite. That case is now before the State Court of Appeals.
“We’re encouraged by the judge’s ruling,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “Judge Farris’ ruling confirms what we’ve argued all along, that under the state preemption law, first adopted in 1983 and strengthened in 1985, the Legislature has sole authority over firearms regulation in the state.”
The preemption statute is designed to create statewide uniformity in firearms regulation, he noted. Allowing municipalities to chip away at the law by adding a storage requirement simply cannot be permissible, he added.
The judge denied the city’s request in the SAF/NRA summary judgment victory to stay the decision until it can be appealed. Gottlieb noted that Judge Farris was having none of it. The judge explained that part of the “stay test” requires showing a reasonable probability of success on the merits, and she saw no possibility of success for the city on appeal. She described it as “not a close call.”
“Michael Bloomberg’s gun control lobbying group has been supporting similar restrictive local laws all over the country,” Gottlieb stated. “This victory will help stop this across the country. Preemption uniformity was a good idea in the 1980s and it is still the most commonsense way to deal with firearms regulation,” Gottlieb observed. “What is the law in one part of a state should be the law in all parts of that state.”
Under the judge’s order, pending appeal, a permanent injunction will take effect against the Edmonds storage ordinance, and if an appeal is unsuccessful, that requirement must be repealed.
Plaintiffs are represented by attorneys Stephen Fogg and Eric Lindbergh with Corr Cronin LLP of Seattle.
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.
It needs to be pointed out that the only way to enforce these laws is for the police or other state agent be allowed to walk into any house unannounced with out a warrant anytime day or night. And since they have no idea who and who does not have firearms, everybody would be subject to this enforcement. This is a violation of the 4th which proves its not just firearms they are after but every right.
Laws like this are really just a pile-on law, something to make the legiscritters feel good that they did something, but will only be added on to other charges when something else happens. Kind of like the federal GFSZA.
Still good to see a judge rule correctly.
Society would be safer if un-Constitutional politicians were the ones locked up.
Since when do democrats care about making unconstitutional laws? They are taught that in the first day of Mentally Derangement class.
It is called Mental Midget Thinking 101.
It sounds like Wash. has too many implants that think they can reform the populace to their utopia way of wanting things. The problem is that they are on the wrong side of the argument. Chalk one up for the good guys and down for the foreigners.
Preemption is plainly written into the Second Amendment, and it is applicable to every state, county, parish, and city. Why is it not followed?
What’s this? A Washington State Judge wielding common sense in a state run amok with legal loonies? I wouldn’t have believed it if I didn’t see it here. These kinds of Judges are so few and far in-between anymore. Fact is, you could take all of Washington State’s Judges wielding common sense within their courts, run them headlong at each other, and yet, only the loonie left would manage to knock anything down. It’s what they do.