Washington Governor Jay Inslee yesterday signed blatantly unconstitutional anti-knife (and anti-gun) SB 5444. The new law goes into effect on June 6th, 2024. From that date it will be illegal to possess ANY knife at a “transit station” including bus, train and trolley stops! As such, unless you manage to board and get off public transport somewhere other than a “transit station,” it will be impossible to legally carry a knife on public transit.
The legislators who voted for this and the Governor cannot say they weren’t warned that this would adversely affect their constituents who use public transit, especially the economically disadvantaged who have no alternative and must carry a knife for their jobs. They are now potentially subject to criminal charges for just trying to make an honest living. It is a law begging to be abused. Sadly, there’s nothing “unintended” in this new law, they all knew the consequences and did it anyway.
This a very frustrating loss for us, having already stopped nine bad knife ban bills from passing over the past decade and a half, all never getting out of committee!
Second Amendment lawsuits that will ultimately impact this unconstitutional new law are in various stages of litigation in the Ninth Circuit (that includes Washington) and around the country, including Knife Rights’ cases. Some of these cases will likely end up at the U.S. Supreme Court before long. One way or another, with luck this bad law won’t be on the books for long.
Knife Rights is America’s grassroots knife owners’ organization; leading the fight to Rewrite Knife Law in America™ and forging a Sharper Future for all Americans™. Knife Rights efforts have now resulted in 45 bills repealing knife bans in 28 states and over 175 cities and towns since 2010.