Local gun shop files suit over weapon ban

MOSES LAKE — A Moses Lake gun shop owner has filed a lawsuit in response to the assault weapon ban enacted last week.

Guardian Arms LLC, located at 208 S. Division St., filed the suit in Grant County Superior Court April 25, the same day Gov. Jay Inslee signed the ban. The suit names Inslee, state Attorney General Bob Ferguson and Grant County Sheriff Joe Kriete as respondents. Also named as petitioners are Ephrata gun dealer Millard Sales LLC, several individual gun owners and the Silent Majority Foundation, a nonprofit advocacy organization based in Pasco.

“We're filing a lawsuit (because this law is) unconstitutional, number one, and number two for doing irreparable harm to our business,” said Guardian Arms CEO Bruce Davis.

Davis explained that the assault weapons ban prohibits not only the firearms themselves, but also the parts needed to build or repair those firearms.

“Those parts are probably 65 to 70% of our business,” Davis said.

The ban, House Bill 1240, defines an “assault weapon” as not only a complete firearm, but also “a conversion kit, part, or combination of parts, from which an assault weapon can be assembled or from which a firearm can be converted into an assault weapon if those parts are in the possession or under the control of the same person.” This definition is followed by a list of parts and accessories that are classified as assault weapons.

“We do a lot of builds with parts,” Davis said. “We do a lot of gunsmithing. And all these people that have these firearms, they're no longer going to be able to repair those firearms. So if your barrels wear out over time, gas tubes and other parts are replaceable items for a reason. So if they have these firearms, now they can no longer repair them.”

HB 1240, as enacted, does not prohibit possession of a firearm classed as an assault weapon, but does make it illegal to manufacture, import, distribute, sell or offer for sale such a firearm. The intent, according to the law’s text, is to allow existing owners to retain the weapons they have, while stopping the proliferation of the weapons. The law allows weapons to be sold or transferred out of state and allows a resident to acquire a weapon upon the former owner’s death, but does not allow that individual to transfer it again except to a licensed dealer or a law enforcement agency.

“They're creating two classes of citizens, the haves and the have-nots, by enacting this bill,” Davis said. “So if you have them currently, you can keep them and you can pass them down to one generation. But that generation can never pass it on further.”

Guardian’s lawsuit alleges that, contrary to the findings listed in the introduction to HB 1240, firearms classed as assault weapons have been used in very few mass shootings in Washington, and also claims that the definition in the law of an assault weapon is unconstitutionally vague. However, the text of the law, which is quoted in its entirety in the lawsuit, devotes three and a half pages to defining what constitutes an assault weapon.

Ferguson’s office referred requests for comment to the attorney general’s Twitter page, where he wrote, “We will defend Washington's new ban on the sale of assault weapons against two legal challenges.” The number of challenges has since risen to three, Ferguson’s spokesperson said.

“We have not reviewed this litigation yet, but we are confident in the state’s authority to protect communities from gun violence through important tools like the assault weapons ban,” wrote a spokesperson for Inslee’s office.

The Grant County Sheriff’s office posted a statement by Kriete on social media in which he expressed his opposition to gun bans and said that legislation that may conflict with the Constitution places law enforcement officers in an untenable position.

“I share the petitioner’s concerns that the so-called assault weapons ban infringes on the right to bear arms in the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution and Art 1, Sec 24 of the Washington State Constitution,” Kriete wrote. “However, ultimately it is the Court’s job to say what the law is, and the Sheriff’s job to enforce the law, subject to the use of reasonable discretion on efficient use of law enforcement resources to ensure justice.”

Kriete’s full statement can be found at https://bit.ly/GCSOvGuardian.

Joel Martin may be reached at jmartin@columbiabasinherald.com.