Second Amendment Foundation: Loopholes aplenty with I-1639

The Second Amendment Foundation, as well as the NRA, will be challenging I-1639 in the coming months. This announced by founder Alan Gottlieb on The Todd Herman Show Wednesday.

I-1639, which Washington voters approved 60 to 40 percent, is billed as prohibiting the sale of firearms between a licensed gun dealer and anyone under the age of 21. Gottlieb says there are ways around the law.

“It’s written in a way that puts a chilling effect on gun ownership, but quite frankly, it’s unenforceable,” Gottlieb said. “There’s a giant loophole in this law. If they go to Oregon or Idaho, they can bring [a rifle] back. It’s totally legal. They just can’t buy it in Washington state.”

Bryan Suits, who was filling in for Todd Herman, is an ex-military member. He asked Gottlieb if he were to have his gun stolen, and the thief went and killed someone with it, if he would get hit with a Class C felony.

Gottlieb said if that happens, there are options.

“If you reported that it had been five days since your gun had been stolen, then they couldn’t prosecute you because if you didn’t know the gun had been stolen for five days, then you could have a problem.” Gottlieb said. “If you didn’t have any reason to believe your gun was going to be stolen, there are ways to get out of it as well.”

Gottlieb also brought up the vagueness in the legislation, particularly insisting one’s firearm needs to be stored ‘properly.’

“They’re not really saying how you have to store the firearm,” Gottlieb said. “But they’re putting penalties on it. If you don’t store it properly, you could get prosecuted.”

Gottlieb said with the law being virtually unenforceable, it makes it harder to challenge.

“If they arrest someone, we can go to court,” Gottlieb said. “At this point in time, the courts are going to say no one has standing until you’re an aggrieved party.”

There are parts of the law in which injunctions might be filed quickly, Gottlieb said, but overall, the lawsuit against it will take years.

“This whole thing was millions of dollars spent to go after gun owners, demonize guns, try and suppress gun sales and, quite frankly, it won’t have an impact on crime.”