Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson has announced he will push for a ban on so-called “assault weapons” in that state next year. (Dave Workman photo)
By Dave Workman
Senior Editor
Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson has announced that he will propose legislation in December that would ban so-called “assault weapons.”
In a press release posted by Ferguson’s office, the Democrat attorney general used the shooting of three teens at a July party in Mukilteo as an excuse.
“The recent tragedy in Mukilteo drives home the need to act with urgency to end the availability of weapons designed with only one purpose — to kill people,” Ferguson stated. “I have a duty to protect the public, as well as uphold the constitution. My proposal will ban some of the deadliest weapons, while respecting the Second Amendment right to bear arms.”
But the announcement got a quick reaction from Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Bellevue-based Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.
“Unfortunately,” Gottlieb told TGM via e-mail, “Washington state has an attorney general that attacks constitutional rights instead of defending them. He is bought and paid for by the gun prohibition lobby.”
The proposed ban would also include ammunition magazines designed to hold more than ten cartridges. According to the Seattle Times, the ban would apply to semi-automatic firearms with “military-style features that render them more easily concealable or more deadly.”
It is not explained how a rifle could be rendered “more concealable.”
According to the statement, Democrat state Senators David Frockt (46th District) and Kevin Ranker (40th District) will work with Ferguson to draft the legislation, which will be introduced in December. The proposal would apparently “grandfather” in any semi-auto rifles now owned by Evergreen State gun owners.
Ferguson’s announcement comes less than two months after Washington Ceasefire announced it would push for a ban when the Legislature convenes in Olympia in January. It’s part of a two-state effort that includes Ceasefire Oregon, a gun prohibition lobbying group in the Beaver State.
Ferguson’s statement claims that the ban “will save lives.”
However, rifles do not appear to be a problem in Washington, or anywhere else in the United States, although they have been used in a handful of high-profile incidents, including San Bernardino and Orlando.
According to FBI Uniform Crime Statistics, rifles of any kind are used in a small number of gun-related homicides annually in the United States. In 2014 for example – the most recent year for which final data is available – out of 8,124 homicides involving firearms, only 248 involved rifles of any kind.
In Washington State, according to the FBI report for that year rifles of any kind were used in only six homicides in the entire state. There were 172 slayings in the state that year, of which 94 involved firearms.
Some gun rights activists privately suggest that the legislative effort is simply a political ploy to put the issue in the spotlight, with the expectation that it will not pass. That would lay the groundwork for a citizen initiative campaign to be launched, putting the question to a public vote.
