On Wednesday, the Washington state Legislature approved a ban on dozens of semi-automatic rifles, and the governor is expected to sign it into law.
Young men who are responsible for the majority of the country’s devastating mass shootings now favor high-powered firearms, which were once outlawed nationwide.
Washington Riffle Ban
The ban is the result of multiple unsuccessful attempts in the state legislature and the highest number of mass shootings in the first 100 days of the year since 2009. More than 50 gun models including AR-15s, AK-47s, and other rifles of a similar design would be prohibited by the Washington law.
These weapons shoot one slug for every trigger draw and consequently reload for an ensuing shot. Sales to Washington’s military and law enforcement agencies are exempt from the law. If Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee, who has long advocated for such a ban, signs the law, it will take effect immediately. When the bill passed the state House in March, Inslee said he had believed it since 1994, when he voted to make the ban a federal law while serving in Congress.
Inslee stated that Washington “will not accept gun violence as normal” after the bill passed.
The ban was opposed by Republican state lawmakers, with some arguing that school shootings should be prevented by remodeling buildings to make them less attractive as targets and others asserting that it violates people’s rights to self-defense.
The U.S. Congress reestablishing a restriction on self loading rifles shows up distant. Yet, President Joe Biden and different liberals have become progressively encouraged in pushing for more grounded firearm controls-and doing as such with no unmistakable discretionary results
Nine states including California, New York and Massachusetts, alongside the over Area of Columbia, have proactively passed comparative boycotts, and the regulations have been maintained as sacred by the courts, as per Washington’s Principal legal officer Sway Ferguson.