Cowlitz County Superior Court Judge Gary Bashor leaned heavily on the Supreme Court’s 2022 Bruen decision in determining that the law violated both the U.S. Constitution and the Washington state Constitution.
Bashor issued an immediate injunction barring state officials from enforcing the ban on magazines holding more than 10 rounds. The restriction has been in place since 2022, and it made it illegal to manufacture, distribute, offer or sell such magazines. The judge’s decision this week put an end to this controversial restriction.
That, however, was short lived.
Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson immediately filed an appeal with the state Supreme Court requesting that the statute remain in place while officials appeal Bashor’s ruling. It was granted within minutes, and the prohibition remains in place.
This is hardly surprising as Washington in recent years became a bastion for gun control extremists and enacted several measures greatly restricting gun rights.
Ferguson in his emergency appeal claimed there would be a flood of these magazines in the state if the injunction was permitted to stand.
Supreme Court Commissioner Michael Johnston revealed the reasoning behind jurists stepping in and blocking the injunction. He claimed the move was based on “the debatable nature of the factual and legal issues raised in this case, and the public safety issues concerning the proliferation of large-capacity magazines.”
Bashor’s decision directly aligned with Bruen’s test of whether a gun control statute is “consistent with the Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.”
The judge wrote that the state clearly failed to present a historical law that justified the arbitrary prohibitions of certain ammunition magazines. There is no precedent available from the time of the nation’s founding to warrant such a law, and Bashor cited this obvious failure in his decision.
“There was no appetite to limit gun rights by the Founders. Though the specific technology available today may not have been envisioned, the Founders expected technological advancements. The result is few, if any, historical analogue laws by which a state can justify a modern firearms regulation.”
Bashor added that the monumental Bruen decision “was not an invitation to take a stroll through the forest of historical firearms regulation throughout American history to find a historical analogue from any random time period.”
Instead, the state must produce a similar law from the era during which the Bill of Rights was adopted.
Such clear-headed thinking obviously ran afoul of the Washington Supreme Court.
State attorneys attempted to present evidence of the “enduring tradition of firearms regulations.” It asserted such laws laid the foundation for its ban on ammo magazines and that there exists “an unprecedented societal concern” over gun violence.
Bashor dismissed these arguments, noting that the 2007 Virginia Tech mass shooting was followed the next year by the Supreme Court expanding protections of Second Amendment rights.
He added, “The Washington legislature has found that gun violence and mass shootings are on the increase. The problem, however, is not an unprecedented societal concern.”
Ferguson of course took issue with the ruling against the state. “Every court in Washington and across the country to consider challenges to a ban on the sale of high-capacity magazines under the U.S. or Washington Constitution has either rejected that challenge or been overruled. This law is constitutional.”
Bashor’s decision followed a lawsuit filed by Ferguson against Gator’s Guns. The Kelso business was accused of selling the magazines after the statewide ban went into effect.
The AG also sued a gun dealer in Federal Way, and the owner agreed to pay $3 million to settle the case.
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