Washington gun retailer faces multimillion-dollar penalty for illegal sales: AG
OLYMPIA, Wash. - Washington State Attorney General (AG) Bob Ferguson held a press conference on Tuesday announcing a multimillion-dollar resolution against a local gun retailer for illegally selling high-capacity magazines.
The suburban Seattle gun shop and its former owner will now pay $3 million for selling high-capacity ammunition magazines despite a state ban.
Attorney General Bob Ferguson (Bob Ferguson campaign)
Ferguson announced the settlement with Federal Way Discount Guns and Mohammed Baghai after a King County judge found last year that the store and former owner were in violation of Washington’s Consumer Protection Act.
The store and Baghai sold thousands of the magazines that can hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition after the state law banning them went into effect in 2022, Ferguson has said.
Ferguson said the former owner kept selling them even after the state filed a lawsuit. The attorney general described the violations as "egregious and brazen."
"Federal Way Discount Guns chose to violate a critical law aimed at combating mass shootings," Ferguson said in a statement. "Washington businesses are following the law and stopped selling high-capacity magazines. This resolution provides accountability for someone who flagrantly violated the law."
RELATED: Sale of high-capacity ammo magazines will be banned in Washington state starting July 1, 2022
Since July 1, 2022, the sale of ammunition magazines with more than 10 rounds has been illegal in Washington state. Importing, manufacturing and distributing them is also outlawed.
The only magazines allowed for sale and importation are those with a maximum capacity of 10 cartridges under a measure pushed through by Democrats and signed by Gov. Jay Inslee earlier in 2020.
Supporters of the bill said at the time the law could reduce the carnage seen in mass shootings because people could have the chance to escape or stop a shooter in the time it takes to reload the weapon.
A salesperson holds a high capacity magazine for an AR-15 rifle at a store in Orem, Utah, U.S., on Thursday, March 25, 2021. Two mass shootings in one week are giving Democrats new urgency to pass gun control legislation, but opposition from Republic
Attorney General Bob Ferguson has said he will "vigorously defend" the new law.
"All seven federal appellate courts to consider laws that ban the sale of high-capacity magazines upheld these laws as constitutional," he said.
The shop had argued in King County Superior Court filings that Baghai didn’t brazenly disregard the ban and instead listened to law enforcement officials who told him the ban was unconstitutional and, therefore, wouldn’t be enforced.
The Federal Way Discount Guns case was the first lawsuit filed by the attorney general's office over violations of the law. A similar lawsuit against Gator's Custom Guns, based in Kelso, Washington, is ongoing. Lakewood retailer WGS Guns was penalized $15,000 for violating the law in 2022.
Under Tuesday’s consent decree, Federal Way Discount Guns and Baghai have agreed to pay $3 million. The attorney general's office will recoup about $1 million it spent litigating the case, while Ferguson said he expected the remaining $2 million will go to local law enforcement agencies for efforts that reduce gun violence.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.