By Dave Workman
Senior Editor
The Washington State Supreme Court handed the City of Seattle its final loss after declining to review the city’s appeal in its attempt to skirt the state preemption law and enact a gun ban in city parks facilities.
The city lost initially in King County Superior Court and again last Oct. 31 before the State Court of Appeals in a civil action filed by the Second Amendment Foundation, National Rifle Association, Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, Washington Arms Collectors and five individual citizens. The case is known as Winnie Chan v. City of Seattle.
“We are proud that the State Supreme Court panel, led by Chief Justice Barbara Madsen, unanimously rejected Seattle’s flagrant attempt to override state law and violate the civil rights of citizens living in or visiting the city,” said Alan Gottlieb, SAF founder and executive vice president. “Our plaintiffs were willing to stand up to the city and public officials who seem determined to transform Seattle into a political gulag where a civil right can be dismissed at will in the interest of political correctness.”
“The Washington Supreme Court made the right decision in recognizing that the city violated state law,” added Chris Cox, executive director of the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action.
“This decision is a clear indication why it’s critically important for states to enact strong preemption laws, to prevent local governments from imposing a patchwork of firearm restrictions.”
The case was being closely watched by gun prohibitionists across the country who have wanted to challenge state preemption laws. Washington’s statute, which dates back to 1983, has served as a model for similar statutes adopted over the past two decades, and if the city had been successful, it could have set a precedent for similar challenges.
Seattle’s attempt to ban guns from city parks property dates back to an incident at the annual Folklife Festival in May 2008 when – for the first time in the event’s history – a non-fatal shooting occurred during a fight. Following that incident, then-Mayor Greg Nickels, a founding member of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, announced that the city would move to ban firearms, even those legally carried openly or concealed by law-abiding citizens, from all city property.
Nickels had to retreat from that, however, because of the state preemption act, so after months of discussion, and after he did not make it through the 2009 mayoral primary, Nickels announced that a parks gun ban would be adopted through an administrative code change. It was his position that such a code would not violate state preemption because it was not adopted as an ordinance.
But damning evidence was uncovered by SAF and Gun Week, which was the predecessor to TGM, in the form of a letter Nickels sent to State House Speaker Frank Chopp. In that letter, Nickels admitted that the city did not have the authority to regulate firearms because of the preemption law.
In addition, Attorney General Rob McKenna, who is now running as a Republican for governor against anti-gun Democrat Congressman Jay Inslee, advised the city in a letter that any kind of ban was outside the city’s authority.
Still, Nickels contended that the parks ban was legal, and it was announced a few weeks before Nickels left office.
SAF, NRA and their partners promptly filed a lawsuit in King County Superior Court, contending that the city was, indeed, acting in violation of state preemption. In early 2010, Judge Catherine Shaffer ruled in favor of SAF and NRA. By then, Seattle had a new mayor, Mike McGinn, but he proved to be just as anti-gun as Nickels, and the city appealed.
That process continued for more than a year, with oral arguments before an appeals court panel in early 2011. The unanimous appellate court ruling, upholding Judge Shaffer’s decision, came down last autumn, and Seattle promptly requested review.
Gottlieb was blistering in his criticism of the city.
“Mayor McGinn and the City Council should be ashamed that they pursued this pipe dream in an effort to turn the city into a banana republic,” he told TGM. “By letting the appeals court ruling stand, other anti-gun officials in city and county governments are on notice that they simply cannot ignore state law.”
SAF and NRA were represented by attorneys Steve Fogg and Molly Malouf with Corr Cronin Michelson Baumgardner & Preece of Seattle.
Nickels, now a declared candidate for Washington Secretary of State, could face some trouble in his campaign because of the attempted gun ban.
Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes told KOMO News that the city will try to change the law during the 2013 legislative session.
