Judge Rules Against NRA In Suit Over WA Gun Control Initiative

SEATTLE, WA — A federal judge has ruled in favor of protecting Initiative 1639 in Washington state.

I-1639 is a voter-approved amendment that restricts certain gun sales in Washington state. When passed, it strengthened background checks, and increased waiting periods for purchases of semiautomatic assault rifles to match requirements already in place for handgun sales. Like handguns, it also raised the minimum age so that semiautomatic assault rifles cannot be sold to anyone under 21.

Shortly after I-1639 went into law in 2019, a lawsuit helmed by the National Rifle Association and the Second Amendment Foundation in Bellevue attempted to challenge and overturn it, a challenge which has now been dismissed in federal court. Plaintiffs argued that I-1639 was in violation of the constitution, but Monday Judge Ronald Leighton ruled that it did not, and that a trial was not necessary to resolve the suit, granting it a summary judgement.

Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson had long pushed for a summary judgement. According to Ferguson's office, in order for a suit to receive a summary judgement without trial, there must be "no genuine dispute" over the facts of the case. In other words, the judge found that the plaintiffs did not have a strong enough argument for the case to go forward.

"An overwhelming majority of Washington voters approved Initiative 1639," Ferguson said. "The NRA continues to challenge voter-approved, common sense gun reforms – and they continue to lose. I will not allow the NRA to undermine the will of the voters. If they choose to appeal, we will beat them again."

I-1639 passed in November 2018 with nearly 60 percent of the vote, but has remained controversial. Shortly after its passage, several sheriffs and police chiefs in Washington announced they would not be enforcing the law. Many offered similar arguments to the now-dismissed lawsuit, claiming that the initiative was unconstitutional. Now that a judge has ruled in favor of the gun control initiative, Ferguson's office is reminding those sheriffs and police chiefs that they have a legally-mandated duty to follow Washington state law, and that they could be found liable if their continued refusal to enforce the law leads to injury or death.

The initiative was crafted in part as a response to the mass shooting at a Mukilteo house party in summer 2017. In that incident, gunman Allen Ivanov purchased a semiautomatic assault rifle just days before he opened fire on the gathering, killing three and wounding several others. Ivanov was 20 at the time, and under the new law would not have been allowed to purchase the weapon. Ferguson's defense of I-1693 included testimony from Paul Kramer, whose son Will was critically injured in the Mukilteo shooting.

Kramer's statement reads in part:

"We were lucky and Will lived. While his physical wounds eventually healed, the grief and trauma never will be gone. I served as the citizen sponsor of Initiative 1639, which would have prohibited Ivanov from legally purchasing the semiautomatic assault rifle he used in his shooting spree, in order to help prevent other families from having to live the same nightmare as ours. ...No family should have to go through the same type of tragedy that mine has.”

Monday's ruling marks the second time the Attorney General has defended a gun safety initiative in court: in 2014 his office won a challenge over I-594, which closed a background check loophole.