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With almost all gun legislation a nonstarter on a divided Capitol Hill, states are charting wildly divergent paths.
Some states are doing everything they can to restrict access to certain weapons. Others are doing everything they can to make guns as accessible as possible without much government oversight.
On the restriction side, Washington on Tuesday became the 10th state to impose an assault-weapons ban, signaling new movement among states to step in where the federal government has failed. The national assault-weapons ban, which was in place for 10 years, lapsed in 2004.
The new Washington state law would ban the distribution, sale, manufacture or importation to the state of scores of specific styles of weapons, including semi-automatic versions of the AK-47 and AR-15. It would not seek to take those rifles from people who already have them. And it has exceptions for people who work in law enforcement and the military.
The measure signed by Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democrat, is already the subject of a lawsuit, and challenges to a similar ban in Illinois are working their way through the state and federal court systems.
In addition to the assault-weapons ban, Inslee signed laws to impose a 10-day waiting period for all gun purchases and to enable consumers to sue gun manufacturers.
CNN’s Jack Forrest and Paradise Afshar note that the votes for the assault-weapons ban in Washington’s legislature fell mostly along party lines. Read their full report.
I’ll add that the 10 states with assault-weapons bans are all reliably blue in federal elections. They are focused in the West – California, Washington and Hawaii – and the Northeast – Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Maryland and…
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