Washington governor Jay Inslee signed three gun control bills on Tuesday, including a ban on AR-15s and dozens of other semiautomatic rifles.
The new measures will go into effect immediately. In addition to the semiautomatic rifle ban, a ten-day waiting period for all gun purchases will be instituted. There is also a measure to enable the state attorney general or private citizens to sue gun manufacturers and dealers under public-nuisance laws if they negligently allow their guns to be sold to minors or straw purchasers, the Seattle Times reported.
"These weapons of war, assault weapons, have no reason other than mass murder," Inslee said at the signing ceremony. "Their only purpose is to kill humans as rapidly as possible in large numbers."
House Bill 1240 bans the sale, transfer, distribution, manufacture and importation of 62 gun models it defines as "assault weapons."
“The legislature finds and declares that gun violence is a threat to the public health and safety of Washingtonians. Assault weapons are civilian versions of weapons created for the military and are designed to kill humans quickly and efficiently,” reads the bill.
Opponents of the package immediately reacted by filing a legal challenge against the assault-weapons ban. Plaintiffs include the Second Amendment Foundation.
“The State of Washington has criminalized one of the most common and important means by which its citizens can exercise their fundamental right to self-defense. By banning manufacturing, importation, distribution, and sale of common semiautomatic rifles, the State has barred law-abiding residents from legally acquiring common rifles and has deprived them of an effective means of self-defense and their fundamental individual right to keep and bear arms,” read the legal filing.
The ban applies only to sales, not to firearms people already own.
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