Washington legislature considers new restrictions as gun shop owner worries about potential impact

OLYMPIA – Advocates for gun regulations pushed for a series of reforms this week, as lawmakers again consider stricter laws to own and maintain firearms in the state.

This session, legislators are considering a series of bills that would require permits for gun sales and establish a new 11% tax for ammunition and firearm sales, among other proposals.

“We, as legislators, have the duty to make sure that we’re doing everything that we can to follow the evidence and experience of other states to do everything we can to keep communities safe,” said Sen. Majority Leader Jaime Pedersen, D-Seattle.

Renee Hopkins, chief executive officer of the Alliance for Gun Responsibility, said Tuesday the state has “made incredible progress” to reduce gun violence.

“We know that there is no single policy that will reduce all gun violence. It is a public health problem, and it takes a system of laws, safeguards, public education and community-based programs to work in tandem to continue to reduce gun violence,” Hopkins said.

According to Hopkins, more than 850 people die every year in Washington from firearms, a statistic that includes conflicts and suicide.

But after legislators adopted tighter rules in recent years, one Spokane-area gun store owner said the new regulations risk putting him out of business.

“In the last three or four years, we’ve banned semiautomatic rifles, we’ve created longer waiting periods, we’ve done all of these different things, and none of them have driven our crime rate down,” said Jeremy Ball, owner of Sharpshooting Indoor Range and Gun Shop. “And so, the question is: Is that what the point is or not?”

This year, the Alliance for Gun Safety is pushing lawmakers to adopt a permit-to-purchase system, which Hopkins said has been proven to be “one of the most effective policies to save lives and reduce gun violence.”

“It’s time for Washington to take a step forward and improve the safety of Washingtonians,” Hopkins said.

The proposal, Pedersen said, would be “consistent with the long-term work we’ve been doing with keeping guns out of the hands of people who should not have them.” Pedersen added that the bill would help ensure that background checks are completed on the person purchasing the gun, rather than passing it to someone else.

Sen. Marko Liias, D-Everett, said the proposal builds on existing laws, “ and it would function similarly to our current background check system.”

“That’s why it’s so important that we’ve done work to strengthen our background check system, our 10-day waiting periods, and require safety training,” Liias said.

Ball said Friday that the requirement to obtain a permit before purchasing a firearm would be redundant and put a new strain on his business.

Owner of the only firearm store and shooting range in Spokane, Ball said he does not have the capacity to handle the additional demand for training required for a permit, and the price of building a new range would be prohibitive.

If adopted, another proposal would require gun owners to store firearms in secure safes or lock boxes in vehicles and homes, which supporters say will restrict access in accidental shootings, domestic violence and suicide situations.

“By focusing on storage in vehicles to prevent theft, the most common source of illegal firearms recovered at crime scenes and arrests, we’re requiring gun owners to take responsibility to ensure their guns don’t fall into the wrong hands,” said Rep. Jamila Taylor, D-Federal Way, chair of the House Civil Rights and Judiciary Committee.

Ball said he’s a “huge proponent” of lock boxes, which included donating 1,500 gun locks to regional schools and working with other organizations to promote storage. While he said he likes “the concept” of the bill, he doesn’t “believe the one-size-fits-all idea is beneficial.”

“The storage needs, or requirements, that I have to have because I have small children at home is different from someone who is a single person and is incredibly competent with a firearm,” Ball said.

According to Ball, his store has lost 35% of his business since April 2023, when Washington became the 10th state in the country to ban semiautomatic rifles. Other restrictions such as establishing an additional 11% tax on firearm and ammunition sales, Ball said, would motivate prospective buyers in the Spokane area to travel across state lines to make a purchase.

“What’s going to happen here is that any of the nonserialized items that can be purchased out of state, meaning long guns, ammunition, firearms accessories, basically anything other than handguns, all of that business is going to leave the state of Washington,” Ball said. “And that doesn’t mean that Washington residents aren’t going to own those things, it means that Washington state is not going to benefit from the sales tax revenue, and it is going to specifically impact all of the businesses that sell those products.”