Washington: Senate Committee Hearing California-Style Gun Ban & Waiting Period Bills

On March 23^rd, at 8:00AM, the Senate Committee on Law & Justice will hear House Bill 1240, a comprehensive gun ban bill, and House Bill 1143, to impose a waiting period and training mandate for acquiring firearms. NRA members and Second Amendment supporters are encouraged to oppose these bills by noting their position for the legislative record and with in-person, remote, or written testimony. Click here for more information on how to participate.

Please also contact committee members and ask them to OPPOSE HB 1240 and HB 1143.

House Bill 1240, a so-called “assault weapons ban,” is a comprehensive ban on the future transferring, importing, and manufacturing of many semi-automatic firearms that law-abiding citizens commonly-own for self-defense, competition, and recreation. It bans enumerated firearm models on a list, that includes shotguns, handguns and rifles. The ban includes semi-automatic rifles with an overall length of less than 30 inches, and any firearms with one or more proscribed features that exist on modern designs for making firearms more user-friendly, such as telescoping stocks meant to adjust the length of pull for users of different statures or wearing different clothing, muzzle brakes meant to reduce recoil, grips conducive to the natural angles of human wrists, and suppressors for hearing protection. In addition, it also bans spare parts and “combination[s] of parts” that can be used to assemble banned firearms, but on their own are simply pieces of plastic or metal.

House Bill 1143 denies law-abiding citizens their Second Amendment right to acquire firearms unless they present proof of completion of official, sanctioned firearms training within the past five years, which they must complete at their own expense. It also imposes an arbitrary ten-day delay on prospective gun owners taking possession of their firearms and makes this delay longer or indefinite if the state fails to complete a background check during that time. The Department of Licensing will also maintain a database (registry) of gun owners and their personal data, despite the agency having previously suffered a data breach affecting 650,000 citizens, just last year. 

Again, please consider submitting testimony against these bills and also contact committee members asking them to OPPOSE HB 1240 and HB 1143.