Court rejects challenge to Washington expanded background check law

By Chris Eger

A 2014 ballot initiative which expanded background checks in Washington was safeguarded by the courts this week. (Photo: Alliance for Gun Responsibility)
A three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit on Thursday tossed out a challenge to the legality of Washington’s voter-approved background check law for person-to-person gun transfers.
Earlier this month Jeff Even, with the Washington Solicitor General’s Office, told the panel the gun groups behind the lawsuit had “purely abstract and hypothetical” claims and lacked standing to challenge the statute since they had never been prosecuted under the new law. This week the panel agreed.
“Appellants fail to demonstrate a genuine threat of imminent prosecution,” the panel said in a memo, before pointing out the law has seldom been used.
“The two known instances where prosecutors have enforced the law involved a firearm transferred without a background check that was later used as a murder weapon and a firearm stolen from a store and exchanged for drugs,” the court said. “Absent a history of enforcement against conduct like that alleged here, Appellants fail to show a genuine threat of prosecution conferring standing under the law of this Circuit.”
The lawsuit, filed just weeks after the controversial referendum was approved by voters by a

Source: Guns.com