Washington Video on transporting high-capacity magazines in/out of WA State on/after July 1, 2022

[Koda]

Anyone who is in the state at any time, leaves and comes back.

Border residents, vacation home, whatever. Unless the law states resident, it applies universally.

But it has to have been legally imported in the first place along with its owner.

Im going to disagree here , but.. How would a non resident legally import a prohibited mag?

 

[RX-79G]

Im going to disagree here , but.. How would a non resident legally import a prohibited mag?

The same way I did when I bought some mags last week. By bringing them into the state before July 1.

 

[sobo]

He's right, @Koda, there is no residency language in the law.
So, as I said on the previous page, our system of jurisprudence is such that if something is not explicitly stated as being prohibited, then it's allowed.
Non-residents' magazines can be grandfathered under this law merely by folks bringing their mags into WA before the end of the day on June 30, 2022.
That is all that is required to meet the letter of the law. Whatever intent the drafters of this POS legislation had when they wrote it does not matter.

 

[The Heretic]

Ah being Glockless and having no idea what a Hexmag goes to that is also something not part of my world. So this is the first time I have seen a Magazine with any sort of identification on it save a manufacturer. And even that is very rare I own 9 firearms with magazines and two that use clips though that is optional on one of them.

MagPul makes mags for a lot of different guns. HexMag makes mags for at least ARs. I pulled out some of my mags - Lancer for ARs has a date stamp on them. FN PS90 mags seem to have a date stamp on them.

 

[The Heretic]

Well who else would be "departing from, and returning to" the state of Washington?

People who regularly travel to/from WA state - like people who work in Vancouver and live in Portland, or Idaho and work in Spokane - although the opposite is usually true.

Anyway, the next time I travel to Vancouver I will just put all of my mags in a box and put them in the cargo space so I can truthfully say those mags existed in WA state before the law went into effect. Probably would make no difference either way as I don't intend to ever move back to WA state and I rarely go there anyway.

 

[Mark W.]

MagPul makes mags for a lot of different guns. HexMag makes mags for at least ARs. I pulled out some of my mags - Lancer for ARs has a date stamp on them. FN PS90 mags seem to have a date stamp on them.

I just checked I own no firearm that Magpul makes a magazine for and own no AR type rifles. SO

 

[Koda]

Still disagree. Not seeing it in the law.
Let me ask you guys this. Does the law allow someone moving into the state (after it goes into effect) to bring with them their "grandfathered" mags?

 

[Hueco]

MagPul Glock mag DOM:

View attachment 1181689
Hexmag:
View attachment 1181690

A little custom stippling ought to take that right off.

 

[The Heretic]

Still disagree. Not seeing it in the law.
Let me ask you guys this. Does the law allow someone moving into the state (after it goes into effect) to bring with them their "grandfathered" mags?

No - I do not think so.

 

[User 1234]

Still disagree. Not seeing it in the law.
Let me ask you guys this. Does the law allow someone moving into the state (after it goes into effect) to bring with them their "grandfathered" mags?

If I lived in a state other than WA and might move to WA in the future and wanted a defensible paper trail, I'd take my mags to WA before July 1st and take a photo next to a geological marker. But in the end it won't matter because the Democrats in WA will eventually amend the law to ban possession of all regular magazines and then the options will be civil disobedience or compliance.

There is some chance the law would be stricken by the US Supreme Court if they accept review of the California mag ban case.

 

[RX-79G]

Still disagree. Not seeing it in the law.
Let me ask you guys this. Does the law allow someone moving into the state (after it goes into effect) to bring with them their "grandfathered" mags?

Grandfathered by previously existing in WA prior to the ban? How could they not? The ONLY metric for a grandfathered magazine is whether it had been in WA before the ban. There is nothing in the law about residency, so the mag's status is based entirely on where it has been in your possession, not where you pay taxes.


What seems to confuse people on topics like this is that many laws don't come with iron clad means of enforcing and prosecuting the law. To an extent, you are supposed to follow the law because you aren't a criminal. You could easily decide to illegally sell a handgun to a minor tomorrow, and until that minor got caught with it, no one would ever know. But if something does happen, you had better have a good reason the Glock you bought in Kent in 2012 ended up in someone else's hands. The mag ban is going to work like that, with importing or selling mags being a 'lesser included offense' added on when someone is caught doing something else.

 

[Koda]

Grandfathered by previously existing in WA prior to the ban? How could they not? The ONLY metric for a grandfathered magazine is whether it had been in WA before the ban.

This doesnt make sense to me. Im talking about non residents vising the state, or moving in. How can a non residents mags exist in a state they dont live in?

 

[RX-79G]

This doesnt make sense to me. Im talking about non residents vising the state, or moving in. How can a non residents mags exist in a state they dont live in?

If I drive out of state with my mags, do they stop existing?

I really don't understand what you're saying. If I own a magazine and legally import it into the state at any point before July 1, it has been legally imported under my ownership. What happens to that mag after that is immaterial as long as it doesn't change ownership. There is no residency requirement stated or implied in the new law. The law applies to everyone, in both the good and bad way.

It is like US citizenship. If my Italian parents fly to Miami and I'm born at their hotel, I am forever a citizen of the US. It doesn't matter where they came from or if I immediately go back to Italy and grow up there. The event happened and it's done.


"But how are you going to prove that you brought that magazine into the state in 2011." You don't have to prove it happened, but if you get yourself in a situation where you are being investigated for something else and you are asked by investigators about an Uzi mag they find, you best not claim something false about where the mag has been because it is possible that they can demonstrate otherwise. And mags with date post 2022 codes on them are going to be pretty solid proof you're lying. But if it is an older mag and there isn't a highly unlikely way it would have been in your possession in WA prior to July 1, then there is no evidence of a crime and that would be the end of it.

 

[Spitpatch]

What if I cross the international date line and then come back?

 

[The Heretic]

Per the vid by the 2A lawyer, you are not importing if you take the mags into the state and then remove them from the state.

By the same logic (IMO - I am not a lawyer), a non-resident taking mags into the state before the ban is in effect, then removing them before the ban is in effect, would probably not make it legal for a non-resident to later take those same mags into the state after the ban went into effect, even if the person intended to immigrate into the state and become a resident.

I think in that case, if you intend to become a resident of WA state, it would be best to immigrate into the state before the ban went into effect, or at least move the mags into the state before the ban went into effect and then left in WA state until after the ban went into effect? They would somehow have to stay in possession of the owner, not in possession of someone else, as the law does not allow for transfer of the mags.

All that said, as noted, enforcement will most likely be non-existent. But the problem would be if you became a resident of WA state well after (e.g., years later) the ban went into effect; it could be argued in court that you brought the mags in after the ban since you were not a resident before the ban.

 

[RX-79G]

Per the vid by the 2A lawyer, you are not importing if you take the mags into the state and then remove them from the state.

Is he right? Where did he get that from? I'm not a lawyer, but I can read a law.

 

[sobo]

Still disagree. Not seeing it in the law.
Let me ask you guys this. Does the law allow someone moving into the state (after it goes into effect) to bring with them their "grandfathered" mags?

Strictly by the law's own definition of "import", yes, the law does allow grandfathered mags to enter the state.

 

[sobo]

No - I do not think so.

The law's very own definition of "import" makes bringing in magazines that have been "grandfathered" legal.

 

[User 1234]

Is he right? Where did he get that from? I'm not a lawyer, but I can read a law.

I disagree with him on that interpretation.

 

[sobo]

This doesnt make sense to me. Im talking about non residents vising the state, or moving in. How can a non residents mags exist in a state they dont live in?

There is no requirement for residency (or non-residency, for that matter) in the law. Therefore, it doesn't matter if you're a resident of WA or not. As long as you bring in the mags prior to June 30, 2022, they are grandfathered and you can bring them back to WA after that date, since they do not meet the law's definition of "import". Residency has nothing to do with it, since it is expressly not mentioned in the law.