SEATTLE (AP) — A federal judge on Friday rejected a challenge to a Washington state law that opens the door to lawsuits against the firearms industry in certain cases.
The bill was one of three bills Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee signed last year to address gun violence.
The law requires the industry to use reasonable controls in the manufacture, sale and marketing of weapons, including measures to ensure that guns are not sold to dangerous persons or straw buyers. The move would allow private parties, such as the attorney general and families of shooting victims, to sue for violations and damages under the state's consumer protection laws.
The National Shooting Sports Foundation, an industry group, challenged the law in U.S. District Court in Spokane, saying it violates the Second Amendment and its members' free speech rights.
U.S. District Judge Mary K. Dimke dismissed the lawsuit in a ruling Friday, saying the group had no legal standing to challenge the measure. He noted that the members have not been sued under the law and have not expressed any intention to violate the terms.
“This law will ensure that the firearms industry is held truly accountable when its irresponsible conduct harms communities,” Attorney General Bob Ferguson, a Democrat running for governor, said in a news release. , protecting Washingtonians from gun violence.”
The Connecticut-based National Shooting Sports Foundation did not immediately return a message seeking comment after business hours Friday.
In 2005, Congress passed the Lawful Arms Commerce Protection Act, which shielded the firearms industry from liability in some circumstances. However, Ferguson said states are allowed to create exemptions from that federal law. Washington and four other states (Delaware, New York, New Jersey, and California) did so.
Other bills signed by Mr. Inslee last year included a ban on the sale of certain semi-automatic rifles and a bill that would impose a 10-day waiting period on firearm purchases.
Legal challenges to this ban and the state's ban on manufacturing and selling large-capacity magazines, adopted in 2022, are pending.
There have been 10 mass killings in the United States so far this year, nine of them shootings, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University. At least 47 people died in these murders, which are defined as incidents in which four or more people, not including the murderer, are killed within a 24-hour period, the same definition used by the FBI. .
