(The Center Square) – Washington state is still 10 months away from implementing a new law that requires gun sellers to comply with recently adopted regulations that include installing steel bars on windows and doors and storing all inventory in fireproof safes at night.
But the costly requirements of House Bill 2118, passed this session by the Legislature, are apparently too much for some. HB 2118 goes into effect on July 1, 2025.
According to media reports, Stan’s Merry Mart in Wenatchee, located in the north-central part of the state in Chelan County, is getting out of the firearms business .
That doesn’t surprise Dave Workman, editor in chief at TheGunMag, the official magazine of the Second Amendment Foundation.
“It looks like it was designed to drive gun dealers out of business, especially the smaller dealers by requiring all kinds of additional security and costly adjustments to their business model,” Workman told The Center Square Monday.
The new requirements include the installation of steel doors or bars on the storefront, locking up all firearms in a safe after hours, and security systems with 24-hour audio and video surveillance, along with retaining those recordings for 90 days at a time.
Bill sponsor Rep. Amy Walen, D-Kirkland, told fellow lawmakers, “The goals are just to make sure inventory is kept safe and secure, standardized records are kept, theft or loss are timely reported, video of transactions is kept, and liability insurance is carried.”
Gun sellers have also raised concerns about being required to capture every customer entering the store on video and recording their conversations with employees at the gun counter.
“Some of these requirements for a mom and pop, they can’t afford this stuff,” Workman said. “That seems to be the unwritten intent of the legislation.”
The National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action wrote, “The onerous requirements of House Bill 2118 will likely put most Washington-based FFLs [Federal Firearms License] out of business because of the financial burden to comply.”
Under the law, any FFL that does more than $1,000 of sales per year must run annual background checks on their employees and carry $1 million liability insurance.
“There are lots of rumblings out there that the smaller dealers are going to throw in the towel, and say ‘I can’t do this in Washington state anymore,’” Workman said.
Workman also questions the effectiveness of Washington’s increasing firearms restrictions over the last decade.
“If you look at the homicide data for Washington state starting in 2015 when the first of these anti-gun pieces of legislation took effect, the number of murders has continued to go up, not down,” he said. “These gun control measures have not lived up to the sales pitch and all they’ve really done is impact the law-abiding citizen who would never dream of committing a crime of violence in the first place.”
According to Every Town for Gun Safety, Washington is ninth in the nation for gun law strength. California has the strictest gun control measures and Arkansas ranks last, according to Every Town.
Workman says gun rights supporters are closely watching to see what happens next in a couple of other high profile gun rights lawsuits with Washington state connections that are expected to be decided at the federal court level, potentially even the U.S. Supreme Court.
That includes the Gator’s Customs Guns case, where Attorney General Bob Ferguson sued Gator’s Guns for continuing to sell high-capacity magazines after a state law banning them went into effect.
Workman said gun rights proponents are waiting for an appeals court ruling in a challenge to House Bill 1240, which bans the sale of so-called assault weapons in Washington.
The case is currently stayed pending the outcome of Duncan v. Bonta at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
