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Washington AG seeks legislation banning assault weapons

A ban on military-style weapons could come to Washington.

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Our state’s top lawyer wants the legislature to ban the sale of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.

The bill would do two things: ban the sale of military-style weapons (such as AR-15’s), and ban high-capacity magazines that hold more than 10 rounds.

According to The Seattle Times, Ferguson made his plea for the ban while “flanked by…dozens of Democrat legislators and officials”.

Ferguson, who proposes several bills a year, acknowledged that an assault weapons ban would be hard to pass – several other recent gun control measures have failed in the Legislature. He said he’ll work to get bipartisan support from lawmakers. Absolutely”, Ferguson said. “But that certainly does not doesn’t deter me or the people in this room.

KIRO Radio’s Jason Rantz argues that any gun used to kill a human qualifies as being created to kill people, “because that’s how you used it”, he said.

When a gunman terrorized Seattle Pacific University with a double-barreled shotgun in 2014, student John Meis heroically tackled and disarmed the gunman while he was reloading. Initiative 1491, backed by the Alliance for Gun Responsibility, comes after legislative efforts to create “extreme risk” protection orders failed earlier this year.

Sen. Mike Padden, R-Spokane Valley, told The News Tribune of Tacoma he is skeptical of the ban.

The suspected killer in that incident, a 19-year-old man who says he was seeking retribution after a rejection by a woman, is facing the death penalty.

New York, Illinois and CT are among the states that have already banned sales of military-style weapons.

A number of states have passed similar legislation banning assault weapons, including NY and Connecticut, Ferguson’s office said. It will not propose gun registration, he added. Kramer survived the Mukilteo shooting that left three dead in July during a house party. “These guns are not used in self-defense”, Raemont said.

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“You’re trying to ban a firearm that’s not responsible for the majority of these mass shootings”, she said.

Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson says the recent shooting in Mukilteo drives home the need to act with urgency to end the availability of weapons designed with only one purpose—to kill people