Attorney General Bob Ferguson, joined by a broad coalition of more than 50 community leaders and elected officials, announced on Wednesday he will submit agency request legislation in the 2017 session to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The bill would ban weapons like the AR-15 used to kill three teens and wound another at a party in Mukilteo in July, according to a media release from Ferguson. Reports indicate that the shooter used a 30-round magazine in that incident, which would also be banned under Ferguson\u2019s proposal.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Ferguson\u2019s proposed legislation has two key elements:<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
A ban on semiautomatic weapons with military-style features that render them more easily concealable or more deadly; and a limit on magazine capacity \u2014 currently unlimited under Washington law \u2014 to a maximum of 10 rounds of ammunition.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThe recent tragedy in Mukilteo drives home the need to act with urgency to end the availability of weapons designed with only one purpose \u2014 to kill people,\u201d Ferguson said. \u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Sen. David Frockt, D-Seattle, and Sen. Kevin Ranker, D-Orcas Island, are working with Ferguson to craft the legislation. The proposal will be modeled after successful assault weapon laws in other states, such as New York and Connecticut. The courts have determined these states\u2019 bans to be constitutional.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Unlike the bans in some other states, Ferguson\u2019s proposal targets only sales, grandfathering current gun ownership. The legislation would not require registration of existing weapons.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
On July 30, three more young people were killed when a troubled 19-year-old opened fire on a party in Mukilteo \u2014 reportedly using an AR-15, a military-style semiautomatic weapon that would be restricted under Ferguson\u2019s proposal.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
A review of mass shootings between January 2009 and January 2013 by Mayors Against Illegal Guns found that incidents where assault weapons or large capacity ammunition magazines were used resulted in 135 percent more people shot and 57 percent more killed, compared to other mass shootings.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
When a gunman terrorized Seattle Pacific University with a double-barreled shotgun in 2014, student John Meis heroically tackled and disarmed the gunman while he was reloading. Even more Washingtonians might have been shot if this weapon held more rounds and had the assault-style features of the alleged Mukilteo shooter\u2019s weapon.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
A recent poll presented by Washington Ceasefire and Ceasefire Oregon showed that 65 percent of adults in the two states \u2014 including a great many gun owners \u2014 favor an assault weapons ban and want lawmakers to act.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Ferguson will file this legislation in December.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Attorney General Bob Ferguson, joined by a broad coalition of more than 50 community leaders and elected officials, announced on Wednesday he will submit agency request legislation in the 2017 session to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-18134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18134"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18134\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18134"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=18134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}