SPOKANE, Wash. — Once Washington's new law banning all future sales of "assault-style" weapons went into effect Tuesday, local gun shops began removing those firearms from their shelves.
The bill does not impact those who already own these firearms.
This legislation was brought forward at the request of Gov. Jay Inslee and Attorney General Bob Ferguson. They believe it is a necessary step to make Washington safer.
"I will say this, AR-15's shouldn't be idolized, they should be prohibited and that's what we're doing today," Inslee said at Tuesday's bill signing.
Many gun rights advocates hoped this day wouldn't come. But now that it has, it goes into effect immediately, which is why staff at Sharp Shooting Indoor range and gun shop in Spokane spent the morning making sure they were immediately in compliance.
According to the law, Washington gun dealers can no longer display any banned inventory.
"We don't have to like this law, we just have to follow it," Jeremy Ball, owner of Sharp Shooting said.
Before opening their doors, staff moved the banned inventory into storage. With about 100 firearms and associated gun parts in stock--it's not a quick process. Which is why they started boxing up the firearms late Monday night.
Ball is the second-generation owner of this family business. He said his parents built the gun shop on defense arms. That's why he's worried about how he'll keep the family business going under the new ban.
"A lot of concern on behalf of our staff of what's that looks like going forward, and how secure our jobs are going forward—mine included," Ball said. "Our hope is that we can carve out a new niche for ourselves. It's not going to be easy because it's almost like starting over again."
By the time doors opened at 10a.m., the law went into effect and several of Sharp Shooting's cases and shelf displays were empty.
For now, their inventory of banned firearms will sit in storage out of sight waiting to be sold out of state. The new law allows gun shops, like Sharp Shooting, 90 days to sell the banned firearms they already have in stock. But they can only be sold or transferred to customers out of state.
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