The National Shooting Sports Foundation is promising to file a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a new law which bans the future sale, manufacture, import or transfer of a so-called “assault weapon,” signed Tuesday by Democrat Gov. Jay Inslee.
In a prepared statement, NSSF Senior Vice President and General Counsel Lawrence G. Keane insisted, “There is no doubt that this law signed by Gov. Jay Inslee unconstitutionally denies Second Amendment rights to law-abiding citizens in Washington state.
“NSSF worked in good faith with state legislators to warn them that this legislation runs afoul of Constitutionally-guaranteed Second Amendment rights to possess commonly owned firearms,” Keane added. “Governor Inslee and Washington’s Attorney General Bob Ferguson put politics ahead of their duty to defend the Constitution and protect the rights of their citizens. NSSF will immediately sue Attorney General Ferguson to have this law declared unconstitutional.”
News of the gun ban became the lead story on the Fox News website, which reported on the festive mood of anti-gunners attending a bill signing ceremony in the Governor’s office inside the state capitol building in Olympia.
During his remarks prior to inking the legislation, Inslee asserted, “No one needs an AR-15 to protect your family…You only need it to kill other families.”
Ferguson, advised that the Second Amendment Foundation had filed its lawsuit while the ceremony was in progress, expressed confidence the state will prevail.
The new gun law targets some 60 firearms by name, including all forms of AK47s, AR-15, M16 and M4 rifles and carbines. There are an estimated 24.4 million of those guns currently in circulation, NSSF said.
NSSF is the firearms industry trade association.
Another group, the Silent Majority Foundation based in Pasco, Wash., in south-central Washington long the Columbia River, was also filing a legal challenge. Last year this group sued over the state’s ban on so-called “large capacity magazines.”
