A Snohomish County judge has ruled a city’s safe gun storage requirement “impermissibly regulates firearms” in violation of Washington state law.
Several residents sued over Edmonds City's 'safe storage' ordinance, which requires gun owners to lock up their weapons. The citizens were joined in the lawsuit by the NRA and Second Amendment Foundation (SAF).
“Michael Bloomberg’s gun control lobbying group has been supporting similar restrictive local laws all over the country,” SAF founder Alan M. Gottlieb said in a press release.
“This victory will help stop this across the country. Preemption uniformity was a good idea in the 1980s and it is still the most commonsense way to deal with firearms regulation,” Gottlieb added.
Washington state’s 36 year-old preemption law bars cities and counties from enacting tougher gun laws than the state.
In a separate Washington gun storage case, filed by SAF and NRA against the City of Seattle, a different judge ruled against the gun rights groups. That case is now before the State Court of Appeals.
The plaintiffs expect that the Seattle case will eventually head to the Supreme Court.