WA Supreme Court leaves high-capacity magazine ban in place

(The Center Square) — Washington's ban on the sale of high-capacity magazines will remain in effect after a Monday decision by the state Supreme Court.

A majority of justices denied a request to modify an order from Supreme Court Commissioner Michael Johnson issued back in April that kept the ban in place, despite a lower court ruling that determined the law was unconstitutional.

Monday’s decision will keep the ban in effect until the court hears arguments, possibly in September, in the state’s appeal of the lower court's ruling.

The order came at the request of state Attorney General Bob Ferguson. 

The case goes back to a dispute between the state and firearms retailer Gator’s Custom Guns in Kelso and owner Walter Wentz.

Gator’s Custom Guns filed a legal challenge against the ban — the result of Senate Bill 5078, passed by the Legislature and signed into law in 2022 — months after it too effect, and Ferguson then filed legal action alleging the store was violating the ban by continuing to sell high-capacity magazines.

When the judge in Cowlitz County ruled the ban unconstitutional back in April, Gator's Custom Guns immediately opened it’s store — on a Monday when it would typically be closed — to long lines of customers eager to purchase high-capacity magazines.

As previously reported by The Center Square, Johnston placed the emergency stay order within a matter of hours of that ruling, meaning the gun store had to turn dozens of customers away.

Wentz told The Center Square that he was initially upset at the state Supreme Court's Monday decision.

“It gave me pause, but then it was explained to me by counsel that this was not unexpected,” he said.

Wentz is represented by The Silent Majority Foundation and lead counsel Pete Serrano, who is running to be Washington's next attorney general.

The order keeping the stay in place reads in part: “The Court concludes the Petitioner will suffer an injury should the stay not be imposed. The Respondent contends that imposing the stay imposes irreparable injury on the constitutional rights of Washington residents by preventing them from purchasing constitutionally protected large capacity ammunition magazines. As the constitutionality of ESSB 5078 has not yet been determined, this injury is speculative. Now, therefore, it is hereby ORDERED: That the Respondents’ motion to modify the Commissioner’s Ruling granting the stay is denied.”

Wentz said he remains fully committed to seeing the case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, adding he was buoyed by this month's decision by the U.S. Supreme Court ordering lower courts to take another look at challenges to several federal and state firearms restrictions following the high court's upholding a law that bans people subject to domestic violence restraining orders from having guns. 

Wentz noted his case hasn’t bypassed any steps along the way, so he believes he is on good legal footing for the battle ahead. 

“Every single day our customers come in and tell me to keep up the fight,” he said. “And they donate for the legal fight, so I’m not giving up.”