Washington Gov. Jay Inslee signed three restrictions on firearms into law Wednesday, including a capacity limit on magazines and a ban on openly carrying such weapons at government meetings.
The third measure he signed strengthens the state’s already existing restrictions on “ghost” guns, unserialized and untraceable firearms that can be bought in separate pieces and assembled at home.
Inslee signed the bills at a ceremony surrounded by gun-safety advocates, including a man whose son was shot during the 2016 shooting in Mukilteo that ultimately led to three deaths. He was also joined by Democratic state lawmakers and state Attorney General Bob Ferguson.
“We are not willing to accept gun violence as a normal part of life in the state of Washington,” Inslee said. “We will not allow this scourge to wash across our state without taking action.”
The three bills Inslee signed are some of the strongest gun restrictions ever passed by the state Legislature.
Senate Bill 5078 prohibits the distribution, sale, importation and manufacture of firearm magazines that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition. Typical pistol magazines can hold anywhere between 12 and 20 rounds, and many rifle magazines can carry up to 30.
The bill was sponsored by state Sen. Marko Liias, D-Everett, who invoked the Mukilteo shooting in a speech before the bill passed out of the state Senate last month. In that shooting, a gunman killed three people and injured another before running out of ammo.
“On July 30, 2016, I vowed to myself and to my community that I would do everything in my power to ensure that no family has to go through what our community went through,” Liias said. “This measure will make Washington a safer place. This measure will save lives."
Liias sponsored the bill at the request of Ferguson, who’s asked Democratic state lawmakers to sponsor the bill on his behalf every year for the past six years. It’s expected to draw legal challenges.
The founder of the Bellevue-based Second Amendment Foundation, Alan Gottlieb, told the Seattle Times that his organization plans to sue.
“The Second Amendment Foundation will definitely file a lawsuit against the magazine ban,” Gottlieb told the Times. “Our attorneys are reviewing the other two bills.”
Gottlieb and others like him say such measures violate the U.S. and Washington constitutions, and do nothing to stymie gun violence.
Inslee addressed the constitutionality argument in his remarks before the ceremony. He almost dared opponents to sue, saying that Ferguson’s office has a stellar record in winning cases against the state.
“Frequently, people who disagree with measures that our communities take to keep us safe make some noise by arguing that it’s unconstitutional,” he said. “They’ve done that about our common-sense measures to save people from COVID 46 times, and Bob Ferguson has won 46 times in a row.”
Inslee also signed House Bill 1630, which bans openly carrying firearms in buildings where local elected bodies — such as city councils and school boards — hold meetings. It also bans such actions in elections offices.
The Legislature’s passage of that law can be viewed as a symptom of the nation’s current political climate.
School board meetings have become the latest ideological battleground in the COVID-19 pandemic, with often irate community members showing up en masse to protest pandemic restrictions in schools. A woman in Virginia was arrested in January after she told a panel of school board members that she would “bring every single gun loaded and ready” if her children had to wear a mask in the classroom.
Elections offices have also come under more scrutiny since the most recent presidential election. Largely fueled by former President Donald Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen, conservative activists — sometimes armed — swarmed to elections offices during some of last year’s high-profile races to act as unofficial “poll watchers.”
“Local officials and election workers deserve to feel safe when serving their communities,” state Rep. Tana Senn, a Democrat from Mercer Island and the bill’s author, said in a news release. “And all Washingtonians deserve safe participation in civic engagement without intimidation and fear.”
It’s not uncommon for the state Legislature to react swiftly following high-profile incidents that involve guns. State lawmakers passed a ban on openly carrying firearms at permitted protests at the state Capitol in Olympia last year following two shootings on Capitol grounds that were the result of clashes between demonstrators.
The final bill Inslee signed Wednesday, House Bill 1705, restricts the sale, purchase, possession and transfer of untraceable firearms, or parts of them. Previously, it had only been illegal to manufacture such guns with the intent to sell them.
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