Olympia, Wash. – Attorney General Bob Ferguson and Washington Governor Jay Inslee announced in December they are requesting two common-sense public safety measures for the legislative session. One renews the call for a ban on military-style assault weapons. The new bill is House Bill 1240 and the ban on military-style assault weapons is Senate Bill 5078 The new proposal that will make sure that gun manufacturers and dealers, like other purveyors of dangerous goods, must take responsibility to ensure that reasonable steps are taken to prevent their products from getting into the hands of dangerous individuals.
The act is called The Firearm Industry Responsibility and Gun Violence Victims’ Access to Justice.
This act makes sure the manufacturers and sellers will face liability if they fail to establish, implement and enforce reasonable controls in the manufacture, sales, distribution and marketing of firearms.
The bill ensures that victims have access to justice when the firearms industry fails to keep firearms out of the hands of dangerous individuals.
A poll sponsored by the Seattle Times in June performed by Public Policy Polling for the Northwest Progressive Institute found that 56 percent of Washington voters support a ban on the sale of assault weapons.
In 2002, 17-year-old Lee Boyd Malvo and 41-year-old John Allen Muhammad killed 10 people and wounded three others in Washington, D.C. in what became known as the Beltway sniper attacks.
The two attackers used a rifle that Malvo stole from a Tacoma gun store.
An investigation found that the store that had the weapon had no idea the gun had been stolen, but it also couldn’t account for hundreds of other weapons it was thought to have in its inventory.
The Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA), protects gun makers and sellers from liability in some circumstances.
Congress invited states to regulate firearm sales and marketing practices by exempting such state laws from PLCAA.
The Firearm Industry Responsibility and Gun Violence Victims’ Access to Justice Act will require the firearm industry members who conduct business in Washington state to establish, implement and enforce reasonable controls regarding the manufacture, sale, distribution, importing, use and marketing of the firearm industry member’s firearm-related products.
According to an Attorney General’s office analysis of mass shooting data, they are 11 times more likely than a handgun to be used in a mass shooting.
Assault weapons are also seven times more likely to kill law enforcement than any other firearm.
The proposed law will prohibit the sale, manufacture and import of assault weapons in Washington state while allowing reasonable exemptions for manufacture and sale to law enforcement and the military.
Ferguson’s first proposed a ban on the sale of assault weapons in 2017 in wake of the 2016 mass shooting at a Mukilteo house party.
In the last session, Ferguson’s proposal to ban the sale of high-capacity magazines in Washington passed the Legislature.
The law went into effect in July 2022.
