Second Amendment Foundation Files Suit Against Seattle’s Gun Storage Ordinance

The Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) filed suit Friday against Seattle’s ordinance requiring gun owners to put their guns inside the gun owner’s home.

On July 19, 2018, Breitbart News reported that the ordinance, which was proposed by Mayor Jenny Durkan (D), requires gun owners to place their firearms in a “locked container” while inside their homes. The ordinance puts graduated levels of fines in place for gun owners who have their firearms accessed by criminals and/or minors.

In fact, the ordinance sets fines against gun owners if a criminal steals an improperly stored gun and uses it in a crime.

SAF says the ordinance is “legally unenforceable” because of Washington state’s preemption law, which bars cities and municipalities from passing gun control that goes beyond that at the state level.

SAF’s filing says:

The state of Washington has the exclusive right to regulate the possession of firearms in Washington, and cities may not enact local laws or regulations related to the possession of firearms. RCW 9.41.290. The City of Seattle has ignored this clear rule of preemption—a rule which it has been found to have violated in the past, see Chan v. City of Seattle, 164 Wn. App. 549, 265 P.3d 169 (2011)—by purporting to regulate the manner in which Seattle citizens may possess firearms. The rule of preemption could not be clearer: the City of Seattle (like any municipality in the state of Washington) is not permitted to pass laws that target the possession of firearms through any means. Accordingly, Plaintiffs bring this action for injunctive and declaratory relief, and ask this Court for an order that would require the Defendants to follow the law.

On July 10, 2018, Breitbart News reported that SAF reached a settlement with the Department of Justice on behalf of Cody Wilson’s Defense Distributed, thereby opening the door for Wilson to conduct unfettered online sharing of 3-D gun printing files.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News, the host of the Breitbart podcast Bullets with AWR Hawkins, and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.