Washington State Bans Sale Of Semi-Automatic Rifles

Prospects take a look at AR-15-style rifles on a largely empty show wall at Rainier Arms Friday, April 14, 2023, in Auburn, Wash. as inventory dwindles earlier than potential laws that might ban future sale of the weapons within the state. Home Invoice 1240 would ban the long run sale, manufacture and import of assault-style semi-automatic weapons to Washington State and would go into rapid impact after being signed by Gov. Jay Inslee.

AP Photograph/Lindsey Wasson

Washington state handed a legislation Tuesday banning the sale of AR-15s and dozens of different semi-automatic rifles.

“These weapons of warfare, assault weapons, haven't any motive apart from mass homicide,” Gov. Jay Inslee mentioned throughout a ceremony the place he signed the invoice into legislation, the Seattle Occasions reported. “Their solely goal is to kill people as quickly as attainable in giant numbers.”

The brand new legislation will take impact instantly and can ban the long run sale, distribution, manufacture and importation of greater than 50 gun fashions, together with AR-15s and AK-47s.

After the proposal first handed the state Home in March, gun retailer house owners throughout the state informed Vice that gross sales of AR-15s went up.

Washington is now the tenth state to ban the sale of semi-automatic rifles.

Two different payments authorised by the Legislature final week and anticipated to be signed into legislation by Inslee on Tuesday embrace a 10-day ready interval for gun purchases. The opposite invoice would maintain gunmakers and sellers liable for taking pictures deaths if they're “irresponsible in how they deal with, retailer or promote these weapons.”