Washington State used to be a pretty pro-gun place. Then they started getting more and more stupid about gun control. None of that has really made a difference in the state, but as people escape Silicon Valley for Washington’s tech enclaves, they bring terrible politics with them.
And so they have numerous gun control laws that would have been unthinkable to folks there just a handful of years ago.
In fact, if they stayed where they were on the anti-gun spectrum, it would be bad enough.
The issue? They didn’t and now Gov. Jay Inslee has signed more gun control into law.
Washington’s gun laws just got tougher.
Gov. Jay Inslee on Tuesday signed a bundle of bills aiming to combat gun violence across the state.
Each measure passed, primarily along party lines, while facing objections from Republican legislators, and all were sponsored by Democratic lawmakers, who hold the majority in the House and Senate.
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One of the most controversial gun-related laws passed this year creates stricter operating requirements on licensed firearm dealers and mandates that gun shop employees must be at least 21 years old. Employees are also subject to yearly background checks.
That legislation also requires dealers to have strict security features, including alarm systems, bars or gates on each window, safe storage practices and 24-hour video surveillance that must be kept for at least 90 days. Additionally, dealers are required to maintain thorough sales records and respond to all law enforcement inquiries within one day beginning July 1, 2025.
Jeremy Ball, owner of Sharp Shooting Indoor Range & Gun Shop in Spokane, said this new policy “takes a one-size-fits-all approach” to firearm retailer safety.
“If you’re a small business, you will likely not have the resources to implement this stuff as the requirements are going to be very costly,” Ball said. “If you are a very large business, there’s almost zero way to comply with it because the requirements aren’t going to be scalable.”
Additionally, Inslee signed a mandatory reporting law and one that added a number of places to the list barring the open carrying of firearms.
Neither of those are great, but what Washington is doing to lawful gun dealers is beyond ridiculous.
Dictating that gun store employees must be 21 is stupid, but it’s not the end of the world, either. Yet mandating that they need around-the-clock video surveillance, storage for it for three months, and then also be able to search their records within 24 hours for any police request is unreasonable.
As Ball noted, for larger operations, this could be completely impossible, in part because ATF requirements dictate they keep records for 10 years, which means there are a lot of records at any gun store that lasts that long and those bigger stores are going to have even more of an issue.
But Inslee and company don’t actually care.
See, the burden on gun stores isn’t a bug. I argue that it’s a feature. It’s a part of the design. If it’s harder for people to sell guns, it’s harder for others to buy them. Who needs gun bans when there are no guns to buy? How can private parties sell guns when they can’t find an FFL to conduct the required universal background check?
Oh, some will survive, but it’ll be harder and harder on them, and that’s the entire point.
