Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson vowed yet again to ban semi-automatic firearms such as the AR-15, along with magazines that hold more than 10 rounds, through legislation he plans to push in Olympia next year, King5.com reports. Ferguson said he’s “committed to proposing this every legislative session until it does pass.”
Ferguson made a similar pledge in September, when he used the July murder of three teenage party-goers in Mukilteo, Wash., as justification for his ban. The accused killer, who passed a criminal background check to purchase the apparent murder weapon, pleaded guilty to the murders on Monday, so Ferguson was out grabbing headlines again.
According to the FBI, over the past five years, fewer than three murders per year—or about 1.5 percent of all murders—have been committed with rifles of any kind in Washington state. In other words, even if murderers obeyed Ferguson’s gun ban, it still wouldn’t affect almost 99 percent of all murders in Washington. We must remain just as committed to defending our right to defend ourselves as Ferguson is to taking that right away.
