Well, this is ‘final’ so I think it can be appealed directly to SCOTUS.<\/p>\n
Washington Supreme Court upholds ban on large ammo magazines<\/a><\/p>\n The Washington Supreme Court has upheld the state\u2019s ban on high-capacity magazines, the latest in a two-year-long saga that has largely played out in Southwest Washington.<\/p>\n Lawmakers in 2022 banned the sale of ammo magazines holding more than 10 bullets in an effort to thwart deadly mass shootings. However,\u00a0a gun store in Kelso<\/a>\u00a0allegedly continued to sell the magazines and picked up a civil lawsuit from the Washington State Attorney General in July 2023. The store owner \u2014 with help from the Pasco-based advocacy group The Silent Majority \u2014 sued, saying the law violated the U.S. Constitution.<\/p>\n A Cowlitz County Superior Court Judge later sided with the gun store and deemed the new law violated the Second Amendment.<\/p>\n Washington Supreme Court justices ruled 7-2 on Thursday that the new state law doesn\u2019t violate Americans\u2019 right to bear arms because \u201clarge capacity magazines are not \u2018arms.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe ability to purchase [large capacity magazines] is not necessary to the core right to possess a firearm in self-defense,\u201d Justice Charles Johnson wrote in the majority opinion.<\/p>\n The decision also found that the legislation does not violate the state\u2019s constitution.<\/p>\n Wally Wentz, the owner of Gator\u2019s Custom Guns in Kelso, declined to comment Thursday.<\/p>\n Wentz\u2019s attorneys at the Silent Majority Foundation said they plan to appeal to the U.S Supreme Court. Attorney Pete Serrano said they will pore over the justices\u2019 legal analysis first.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cAs of right now, that\u2019s the intent (to appeal),\u201d Serrano said. \u201cThis opinion got in my hand five hour ago. We have to do dig in, cross the T\u2019s and dot our I\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n Much of the 19-page opinion centered around a textual analysis of what is considered an \u201carm\u201d under the Washington and U.S. constitutions.<\/p>\n Robert Spitzer, a former political science professor at the State University of New York at Cortland and an expert on the history of gun policy, says the term \u201carm\u201d has been hotly debated for years.<\/p>\n For example, courts have ruled that some knives qualify as arms, such as a Bowie knife, while others like paring knives do not. States have been empowered to restrict Bowie knives for years.<\/p>\n In its decision, the Washington Supreme Court opined that the constitutional language intends to give people the ability to defend themselves and that large capacity magazines are not used for self-defense.<\/p>\n In dissent, signed by Justices Sheryl Gordon McCloud and G. Helen Whitener, justices contended that the Second Amendment has wider protections than arms. The judges also opined that the Second Amendment protects firearms for \u201clawful purposes\u201d beyond self-defense.<\/p>\n Spitzer noted that people can still fire more than 10 rounds, but they have to reload.<\/p>\n Zach Pekelis, of Seattle-based Pacifica Law Group, said federal appellate courts have agreed that prohibiting large magazines \u201cis consistent with the Second Amendment.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cEvery single federal court of appeals that has considered the question of whether (large-capacity magazines) restrictions are constitutional has been held consistent,\u201d Pekelis said.<\/p>\n Pekelis also represents the advocacy groups Alliance for Gun Responsibility and the Alliance for a Safe Oregon.<\/p>\n The Washington ruling reflects a similar one in Oregon. In March, the\u00a0Oregon Court of Appeals upheld Measure 114<\/a>, a voter-approved initiative that regulates the purchase of high-capacity magazines and further regulates gun purchases.<\/p>\n According to Spitzer, more than a dozen states have placed restrictions on large capacity magazines.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Well, this is ‘final’ so I think it can be appealed directly to SCOTUS. Washington Supreme Court upholds ban on large ammo magazines The Washington Supreme Court has upheld the state\u2019s ban on high-capacity magazines, the latest in a two-year-long saga that has largely played out in Southwest Washington. Lawmakers in 2022 banned the sale … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,11,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-109896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-courts","category-crap-for-brains","category-rkba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=109896"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109896\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":109899,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109896\/revisions\/109899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=109896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=109896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=109896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}