Spokane gun range, Olympic athlete sue Washington state over ‘assault weapon’ ban

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SPOKANE, Wash. — A Spokane gun range and Olympic athlete filed a lawsuit against Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson and State Patrol Chief John Batiste on Tuesday over a recently passed law to ban the sale and import of “assault weapons.”

That law defines “assault weapons” as semiautomatic rifles that fit certain criteria, including being shorter than 30 inches and having the ability to accept a detachable magazine. It also provides a list of weapons the legislature considers assault weapons, which includes AR-15s and AK-47s. Play Video

Sharp Shooting Indoor Range & Gun Shop and Amanda Banta, a former member of the USA Shooting Team who competed in the 2012 Olympic Games, among others, are suing Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson and Washington State Patrol Chief John Batiste over a newly passed law to ban the sale and import of assault weapons.

Sharp Shooting Indoor Range & Gun Shop, Olympian Amanda Banta and others argued in the lawsuit that the weapons included in the ban are “in common use,” and based on current case law cannot be banned. 

According to the plaintiffs, the law “takes the radical step of banning nearly every modern semiautomatic rifle—the single most popular type of rifle in the country, possessed by Americans in the tens of millions.”

The plaintiffs sued Ferguson and Batiste to prevent their respective agencies from enforcing the law.

Proponents of the legislation, including First Spouse Trudi Inslee, argued throughout the session that it will help keep children safe by making it harder for would-be school shooters from obtaining their weapons of choice.

A RAND Corporation review of research found such a ban may decrease mass shooting deaths, but more research is needed.

The lawsuit filed Tuesday draws distinctions between fully-automatic weapons and semi-automatics, arguing bans against the former are reasonable, while the latter “have been in safe and effective use by civilians in this country—including in Washington—for more than a century.”

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