BELLEVUE, WA – Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson is among 18 attorneys general whose amicus brief to the Third U.S. Court of Appeals in a Second Amendment Foundation case challenging discriminatory gun laws in Pennsylvania was on the losing side in an attempt for an en banc rehearing before the court.
Ferguson, a Democrat now running to succeed retiring Gov. Jay Inslee, was joined by other Democrat attorneys general in the unpersuasive 15-page brief. The case, known as Lara v. Evanchick, challenges Pennsylvania’s prohibition against young adults in the 18- to 20-year-old category from carrying firearms for personal protection.
“Bob Ferguson will have some explaining to do when he asks for support from young adults, about why he doesn’t think they should be able to exercise all of their constitutionally-enumerated rights,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “People in that age group can vote, join the military, get married, start businesses, enter into contracts and even run for public office, but evidently Ferguson doesn’t think they should be able to defend themselves.
“Ferguson is going to be the keynote speaker at the May 8 fund raising luncheon for the Seattle-based Alliance for Gun Responsibility, a billionaire-backed gun prohibition lobbying group whose public disarmament efforts he has always supported,” Gottlieb continued. “Maybe he will explain how he was on the losing side in a Pennsylvania gun rights case, when he always brags that he has never lost to the Second Amendment Foundation.
“His policies, and the policies of his party, have made Washington a far less safe place to live, work and raise families,” Gottlieb observed. “The number of Evergreen State homicides has doubled in the past ten years. The Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs noted in its crime report for 2022 that ‘The rate of murders, violent and property crimes rose across the state, while the number of officers…decreased again in 2022.’ That’s hardly anything to brag about, and it happened on his watch.”