October 8, 2024
Pacifica Helps Defend WA Assault Weapons Ban from Another Gun Lobby Challenge
Pacifica Law Group helped defeat yet another challenge to Washington State’s commonsense ban on the sale of assault weapons recently when a federal judge rejected an attempt by gun lobbyists to block implementation of the law. The ruling represents the gun lobby’s fourth failed attempt to stop the assault weapons ban in the courts.
Pacifica’s client, the Alliance for Gun Responsibility (the Alliance), a Washington nonprofit organization that works to save lives and eliminate harms caused by gun violence, intervened in the case to help the Attorney General’s Office defend Substitute House Bill 1240 (SHB 1240), which prohibits the manufacture, import, sale, and distribution of assault weapons. Governor Jay Inslee signed SHB 1240 into law in April 2023.
Soon after, the National Shooting Sports Foundation, Washington gun dealers, and other plaintiffs filed a lawsuit and requested a preliminary injunction to block the law. In the case, Banta, et al. v. Ferguson, et al., plaintiffs argued that SHB 1240 violates the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and asked the court to pause the ban while litigation proceeded.
Judge Mary K. Dimke of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington rejected plaintiffs’ arguments, holding that plaintiffs “failed to demonstrate a likelihood of success on the merits” for at least two reasons. First, Judge Dimke held that plaintiffs failed to provide evidence that the weapons banned by SHB 1240 are covered by the Second Amendment. Second, Judge Dimke held that, even if the banned weapons were covered by the Second Amendment, the defendants were likely to succeed in demonstrating that banning assault weapons “is within this Nation’s historical tradition of gun regulations” and therefore constitutional.
Judge Dimke’s decision is the latest in a series of rulings rejecting challenges to the assault weapons ban. Last June, Judge Robert Bryan of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington rejected a similar request to preliminarily enjoin SHB 1240 in Hartford et al. v. Ferguson et al. And in Guardian Arms v. Inslee et al., Thurston County Superior Court Judge Allyson Zipp rejected a request for a temporary restraining order in June 2023, and then later rejected an attempt to preliminarily enjoin the law in September 2023.
Pacifica has also represented the Alliance as intervenor-defendants in both of these cases.
The Pacifica litigation team that helped defend SHB 1240 includes partners Zach Pekelis and Kai Smith, and associate Meha Goyal.
