The Washington State Supreme Court has agreed to hear arguments in the case involving a Kelso gun store owner, challenging a state law that prohibits the sale of large-capacity magazines.
The state Supreme Court is granting direct review, bypassing the Washington State Court of Appeals. The date for review has not been set.
The case, which would determine the future of a 2022 law that bans the sale of magazines that can hold over 10 rounds, could be heard in the upcoming term.
Lorrie Thompson, senior communications officer for the Administrative Office of the Courts, said there is good chance the case won't be heard until the winter term, starting in January.
Records show the majority of the court favored accepting the case to come directly to the highest court in the state.
On July 10, the court will convene in a conference to consider the emergency stay placed on Cowlitz County Superior Court Judge Gary Bashor's April ruling, which found the state ban unconstitutional. That conference will determine whether that legal pause to sell those aftermarket accessories will remain as the case moves forward.
The case centers around two lawsuits.
Gator's filed suit in Cowlitz County Superior Court in August, seeking a judgment against the state that would declare the large-capacity magazine ban unconstitutional under the Washington and U.S. Constitution.
The state countersued the next month, alleging Gator’s sold such high-capacity cartridges to undercover state employees after the ban on two occasions in May 2023, including a magazine with the capacity to hold 40 rounds.
Bashor issued his ruling on both cases April 8, stating, in part, that the country’s Founding Fathers didn’t intend to limit gun ownership because there were no laws at the time of the Second Amendment’s adoption analogous to the state’s current ban on high-capacity magazines.
Bashor's ruling allowed the sale of high-capacity magazines throughout Washington for about an hour, until the state Supreme Court issued an emergency stay that reenacted the ban.
