Gators Guns Hearing Moved!
Order from Judge Bashor
Hey SMF Fam,
We have an important update on our constitutional challenge to SB 5078 in Cowlitz County, Washington State v. Gator’s Custom Guns. First line of business: We have a new date for the hearing (previously 1/22) of March 11th at 9 AM at the Cowlitz County Courthouse.
On January 8th SMF and the State argued on the State’s Motion to Continue the case and a Motion for a More Definite Statement. In our case, the State’s position is that we could have done a better job clearly articulating claims under the Second Amendment (not just state law). Judge Bashor disagreed with the state and determined that the pleadings are sufficient, as written.
On the Motion to Continue, the State believes they need more time for discovery. While the Judge was initially not inclined to grant the State’s continuance, he ended up granting a continuance, but how he did it is important. Please read his words (attached) and right here:
“The Court has some misgivings about a continuance based on the showing made, however, the State has made a convincing argument for limited additional discovery.”
Note: we have 2-3 answers that the State believes are outstanding from earlier discovery. They also want to dig deeper into the NSSF study that we included in our pleadings that offer a calculated number of >10 round magazines in circulation. It is also important to note that the Judge is not requiring either party to use the designated experts—of course, the State wants to depose our experts, even though the judge has said “It’s not clear what facts in dispute such further discovery would provide.”
Not surprisingly, this looks like another delay tactic for the State, although the upside is that it doesn’t appear that the State’s insistence on discovery has changed Judge Bashor’s view that a constitutional challenge turns squarely on the law and that no facts remain in dispute.
So, we have two key takeaways:
1. See you on March 11 at 9 AM, if you plan to attend; and
2. It’s a little bit longer, but the path remains equally clear: the focus is on the Constitution and whether it protects these magazines.
Thank you for your continued support of Silent Majority Foundation and Wally at Gators Custom Guns! We couldn’t do the litigation, advocacy and education work we do without YOU!
I saw the headline and my first thought was that Ferguson had managed to get the venue changed to Thurston County.
Don’t scare me like that again!