When the state Legislature handed a historic raft of gun management legal guidelines final session, many gun rights supporters waved off these measures as little greater than ineffective posturing that might do little to curb gun violence. They promised that one of many extra controversial measures, a legislation permitting state Lawyer Normal Bob Ferguson to sue the gun business, would instantly be challenged in court docket.
Final week Ferguson basically stated, carry it on.
The legal professional basic, who’s working for governor, filed a lawsuit in opposition to Gator’s Customized Weapons, of Kelso, for illegally making a whole lot of high-capacity magazines accessible on the market. Gator’s proprietor, Walter Wentz, imported greater than 11,400 of those magazines after the state legislation went into impact in 2022, Ferguson alleges, opening the gun supplier to penalties of as much as $7,500 for every journal displayed or bought.
That is the third time Ferguson has taken motion to implement Washington state’s new restrictions on gun sellers, after earlier efforts in opposition to gun shops in Federal Approach and Lakewood. Taken collectively they sign a zealous dedication to make a dent in gun violence. Excessive-capacity magazines had been utilized in a few of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. historical past, together with Las Vegas, Orlando, Sandy Hook, and Parkland, in addition to in Mukilteo, the place three youngsters had been slaughtered at a celebration in 2016.
With 35 mass killings up to now this yr within the U.S., the Biden administration is predicted to announce a brand new White Home Workplace of Gun Violence Prevention on Friday.
An aggressive lawyer could be a excellent factor, and Ferguson has demonstrated commendable vitality in sure areas of public coverage throughout his decade on the job. Nonetheless, his workplace has additionally price Washington greater than $1 million in penalties over the previous eight years for improprieties when defending the state.
Most of these sanctions stem from a discovering that specialists paid by the state destroyed emails that had been a part of a lawsuit across the Oso landslide that killed 43 individuals in 2014. The state ultimately settled that case for $50 million.
Extra lately, Ferguson’s workplace has been dinged for failing to show over discovery paperwork when defending the Division of Social and Well being Companies in opposition to allegations that it left a developmentally disabled lady in Kent to languish in abysmal circumstances.
Is there a sample right here? Ferguson has his critics, however few accuse him of being lazy. Slightly, a Superior Courtroom choose excoriated the legal professional basic for the “cavalier” perspective of his workers within the Kent case.
Within the swimsuit in opposition to Gator’s Customized Weapons, Rep. Jim Walsh, R-Aberdeen, means that Ferguson walked right into a lure by going after a supplier who is raring to “set off a authorized motion” and problem Washington’s gun legal guidelines, which might in the end result in their repeal. The Silent Majority Basis, a nonprofit devoted to gun rights, calls the Gator’s case a ploy to “win political factors.”
Probably so. Ferguson is, in spite of everything, working to be governor of a blue state. However no matter one feels about his strategies, he is aware of precisely what he’s doing.
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