Court ruling: Edmonds can't enforce safe gun storage
EVERETT — Edmonds can’t tell people how to store their guns, a Snohomish County Superior Court judge has ruled.
The decision arrived Friday, more than a year after three Edmonds residents filed a lawsuit against the city, with the assistance of the National Rifle Association and the Bellevue-based Second Amendment Foundation.
The Edmonds law, which took effect in March, required gun owners to keep their firearms locked up and inaccessible to others, especially children.
The city council passed the ordinance in July 2018. The next month, Edmonds residents Brett Bass, Swan Seaberg and Curtis McCullough filed for an injunction.
Attorney Eric Lindberg argued during a hearing Friday that state law pre-empted local governments from enacting their own regulations related to the possession of firearms.
Judge Anita Farris agreed, at least when it came to the storage of firearms. She granted a summary judgment ordering that the city not enforce the storage aspect of the ordinance.
She ruled, however, that the plaintiffs had no standing to challenge a portion of the city’s law regarding access to firearms. A person could still be fined up to $1,000 if someone, such as a child or a thief, gets unauthorized access to a gun. And if an unauthorized person uses the firearm to commit a crime or injure themselves or others, the gun owner could be fined again, up to $10,000.
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