Washington Gov. Jay Inslee on Tuesday signed three gun regulation bills into law, including an immediate ban on the manufacture, importation, distribution and sales of assault-style weapons, with exceptions for law enforcement and military.
Jerome Pickett, a former U.S. Secret Service agent and former Chief Security Officer for the NBA, said assault-style weapons are not just a danger to the public, but to the law enforcement officers who have to face them in the field.
“As a former law enforcement tactical team leader, I can’t think of a reasonable reason why we would want assault weapons to be available broadly to the public,” Pickett said. “The job of the men and women sworn to protect us is tough enough without having to face the level of carnage assault-style weapons enable.”
Pickett said the state’s ban “is a smart first step to begin to limit and reduce the types of weapons that are used in a majority of mass shootings in our country.” But “restrictive gun legislation is not the only step needed” to reduce gun violence, he said.
The state also passed a bill requiring a 10-day waiting period to purchase a gun along with safety training, effective Jan. 1, 2024. Another bill requires manufacturers and dealers to make “reasonable” efforts to keep their products from “dangerous individuals.”
“Updated background checks, gun safety training, gun purchase flags,” are all processes that “should be a part of gun ownership,” Pickett said.
Resources are also needed to “manage intervention with gun owners in crisis or who threaten the public,” Pickett said.
The NRA and the Second Amendment Foundation both filed lawsuits Tuesday opposing the legislation. The NRA is filing on behalf of the National Shooting Sports Foundation along with individuals, and the SAF is joined in its complaint by the Firearms Policy Coalition, the retailer Sporting Systems, and three individuals.
Attorney General Bob Ferguson and State Patrol Chief John R. Batiste are named as defendants in both complaints, while the SAF complaint additionally names several county sheriffs.
TMX contributed to this story.
