SAF Files Federal Lawsuit Challenging WA Magazine Ban

U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- The Second Amendment Foundation on Friday filed a federal lawsuit challenging Washington State’s newly-adopted ban on so-called “large capacity ammunition magazines” scheduled to take effect July 1.

The legal action came just hours before the Seattle-based Alliance for Gun Responsibility was to hold a press event promoting gun control and “National Gun Violence Awareness Day,” according to KIRO News.

Joining SAF in this legal action are the Firearms Policy Coalition, Inc., a California-based group; Rainier Arms, LLC and a private citizen, Gabriella Sullivan. They are represented by attorneys David H. Thompson, Peter A. Patterson and William V. Bergstrom with Cooper & Kirk PLLC in Washington, D.C., Cody J. Wisniewski at the Mountain States Legal Foundation, and locally by Joel Ard at Ard Law Group.

The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington. The case is known as Sullivan v. Ferguson.

Named as defendants are Democrat State Attorney General Bob Ferguson, Washington State Patrol Chief John R. Batiste, King County Sheriff Patti Cole-Tindall, Kitsap County Sheriff John Gese, Grays Harbor County Sheriff Rick Scott, King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg, Kitsap County Prosecutor Chad M. Enright and Grays Harbor County Prosecutor Katie Svoboda.

In a prepared statement, SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb explained, “We’re asking the court to declare Washington’s ban on original capacity magazines to be unconstitutional under the Second and Fourteenth amendments. We want an injunction against the state because this ban criminalizes something that is common in a majority of states, and also leaves law-abiding Washington citizens more vulnerable to attack by ruthless criminals.”

Washington has become a hotbed of anti-gun activism over the past few years, energized primarily by big bucks involvement from a handful of wealthy Seattle-area elitists including Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer, the late Paul Allen (all Microsoft alumni), and venture capitalist Nick Hanauer. Additionally, anti-gun billionaire Michael Bloomberg and his Everytown for Gun Safety lobbying group have provided support for a pair of gun control initiative campaigns, I-594 in 2014 and I-1639 in 2018.

Under provisions of engrossed substitute Senate Bill 5078 passed earlier this year, Washington bans the future sale, importation, manufacture and distribution of ammunition magazines capable of holding more than ten cartridges. These are widely considered standard capacity magazines by manufacturers of firearms for which they are designed. This new law affects both rifles and pistols.

Surprisingly, the law does not outlaw such magazines if they are already owned by state residents. Washington gun rights activists believe this is the first step toward an ultimate ban on all such magazines, which would theoretically come along later while Democrats remain in control of the State Legislature and presumably hold onto both the offices of governor and attorney general.

“Many of the most popular handguns and modern semiautomatic rifles come standard with magazines that hold more than ten rounds,” Gottlieb noted. “Such firearms are legally owned by Washington residents. As we note in the lawsuit, there is no reliable proof that restrictions on new manufacturing or sales of such magazines will reduce violent crime. This law unfairly and arbitrarily penalizes honest citizens for crimes they didn’t commit, in the hopes of preventing crimes they wouldn’t dream of committing.”

There is one standout incident in California that underscores Gottlieb’s position, the infamous Isla Vista murders committed by killer Elliot Rodger in 2014. Of the six people he killed in that rampage near the University of California, Santa Barbara, three were shot and three were stabbed/slashed to death.

Rodger bought three handguns in the months leading up to his attack, going through California’s background check and mandated waiting period. He used only California-compliant 10-round magazines. These facts are rarely mentioned in the gun control debate because they do not fit the narrative.

By filing their federal lawsuit ahead of the effective date of the magazine ban legislation, plaintiffs hope to throw a legal speed bump in the way of Washington’s anti-gun crusade.

A similar ban in California was declared unconstitutional by a federal district judge, and his ruling was initially upheld by a three-judge federal appeals court panel. However, the case was re-heard by an en banc panel in the liberal Ninth Circuit in San Francisco, which reversed the lower courts. The National Rifle Association has since petitioned for review by the U.S. Supreme Court, which has yet to announce whether it will take the case.

Washington is also in the Ninth Circuit, so the California case outcome could have a direct bearing on the new lawsuit.

SAF and NRA are currently challenging provisions of I-1639 in the Ninth Circuit. That’s the measure which raised the minimum age for buying a so-called “semiautomatic assault rifle” to 21 years. A similar prohibition in California was struck down last month by a three-judge panel as unconstitutional by a three-judge panel on a 2-1 vote. That lawsuit will likely also be re-heard by an en banc panel.

About Dave Workman

Dave Workman is a senior editor at TheGunMag.com and Liberty Park Press, author of multiple books on the Right to Keep & Bear Arms, and formerly an NRA-certified firearms instructor.