Wash. Rev. Code § 9.41.040
RCW 9.41.040
Findings-Intent- 2023 c 295 : "(1) The legislature finds that gun violence is a multifaceted public health problem that includes suicide, homicide, intimate partner violence, community violence, mass violence, nonfatal gunshot injuries and threats, with community violence and mass violence often committed by those with a history of domestic violence. National data indicates that in 2021, approximately 20,996 Americans died by firearm homicide and that 81 percent of all homicides are committed with a firearm. According to United States centers for disease control and prevention data, gun homicide disproportionately impacts people of color, especially Black males ages 15 to 34, who are 20 times more likely to die by gun violence than white males in the same age group. Black, Indigenous, and Latinx women are at higher risk for intimate partner violence-related homicide, and disparities in homicide rates are especially pronounced among women between 18 and 29 years of age. Nearly 60 percent of intimate partner violence-related homicides involve firearms.
(2) When perpetrators of intimate partner violence, including physical violence, sexual abuse, stalking, and psychological aggression of a current or former intimate partner, have access to firearms, women are especially at risk of serious or deadly harm. When an abusive partner or former partner owns or has access to a firearm, the likelihood of intimate partner homicide increases by a factor of five. Women in the United States are 21 times more likely to be killed with a gun than women in other high-income countries. There are about 4,500,000 women in America who have been threatened with a gun and nearly 1,000,000 women who have been shot or shot at by an intimate partner. Perpetrators of intimate partner violence who have access to firearms also use them to coerce, control, and intimidate their partners.
(3) Many who seek protection from harm through the civil legal system, and obtain a protection order and an order to surrender and prohibit weapons, may not wish to engage the criminal legal system or to have the threat or violence they have experienced be prosecuted. According to the national intimate partner and sexual violence survey, more than one in two non-Hispanic Black women, American Indian, or Alaskan Native women, three in five multiracial non-Hispanic women, and two in five Hispanic women have been a victim of physical violence, rape, and/or stalking by a partner in their lifetime. But they are far less likely to report the crimes, due to distrust of the criminal legal system, intergenerational trauma, fear of police interaction, and concern about over incarceration. For many, the threat of violence continues over a long period of time, making it critical that access to firearms is appropriately limited when there are ongoing indicators of risk as reflected by a protection order, an order to surrender and prohibit weapons, or violations of these orders.
(4) An extensive body of research has identified specific risk factors that increase the likelihood of individuals engaging in future violence, including gun violence, and presenting further risk to public safety. The strongest predictor of future violence is prior violent behavior, including perpetration of domestic violence and violent misdemeanors. Other particularly strong risk factors for future violence include recent violation of a domestic violence protection order or other protection order; frequent risky alcohol use or certain types of controlled substance use; and cruelty to animals. Unlawful or reckless use, display, or brandishing of a firearm and recent acquisition of firearms, ammunition, or other deadly weapons are also risk factors for future violence, as is access to firearms in general. Multiple research studies have also shown that easy access to firearms by the general public increases risk of death by both homicide and suicide. Individuals returning from incarceration are a vulnerable population for whom these risks may be compounded. Furthermore, homicide and suicide (by any means) are leading causes of death for returning residents after they are released from prison, especially soon after release. Research provides important guidance regarding events that should result in temporary prohibition of firearm rights so that the laws regarding firearm possession and the restoration of firearm rights are grounded in risk assessment data to help protect public health and safety while upholding individual liberty. These changes are not intended to punish, but to provide a regulatory framework to help ensure the safety of those with a heightened risk of experiencing gun violence.
(5) The laws requiring certain individuals who are subject to protection orders, no-contact orders, or restraining orders to immediately relinquish dangerous weapons and concealed pistol licenses, and be prohibited from possessing or purchasing firearms, have been strengthened in recent years to help better address the risks that access to firearms by those individuals poses for survivors and their children. The legislature finds that similarly strengthening the laws regarding unlawful possession and restoration of firearm rights will protect these survivors, and their families and communities, from added risk of harm, and include their personal knowledge regarding possible violations of firearm prohibitions in the restoration petition process.
(6) The legislature also finds it would be helpful to refine statutory language that was at issue in the Washington state supreme court's decision in State v. Dennis, 191 Wn.2d 169 (2018). In that decision, the court held that absent more specific language in RCW 9.41.040 regarding the five-year waiting period before a person may petition to have the person's firearm rights restored, the requisite waiting period may include any conviction-free period of five or more consecutive years, even if a person had been convicted of a new crime within the five years immediately preceding the person's filing of a petition for restoration of firearm rights. The legislature intends to clarify that a person may not petition to have the person's firearm rights restored if the person has been convicted of a new prohibiting crime within the specified number of consecutive years immediately preceding the person's filing of a petition.
(7) The legislature also finds that it is important to recognize and remove barriers for individuals who have demonstrated that they have safely reintegrated into their communities." [2023 c 295 s 1.]
Effective dates- 2022 c 268 : See note following RCW 7.105.010.
Effective date- 2022 c 268; 2021 c 215 : See note following RCW 7.105.900.
Effective date- 2020 c 29 : See note following RCW 7.77.060.
Severability-2005 c 453: "If any provision of this act or its application to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the remainder of the act or the application of the provision to other persons or circumstances is not affected." [ 2005 c 453 s 7.]
Intent-Effective date-2003 c 53: See notes following RCW 2.48.180.
Finding-Evaluation-Report-1997 c 338: See note following RCW 13.40.0357.
Severability-Effective dates-1997 c 338: See notes following RCW 5.60.060.
Findings and intent-Short title-Severability-Captions not law-1995 c 129: See notes following RCW 9.94A.510.
Finding-Intent-Severability-1994 sp.s. c 7: See notes following RCW 43.70.540.
Effective date-1994 sp.s. c 7 ss 401-410, 413-416, 418-437, and 439-460: See note following RCW 9.41.010.
Part headings not law-Severability-1992 c 205: See notes following RCW 13.40.010.
Severability-1992 c 168: See note following RCW 9.41.070.
Severability-1983 c 232: See note following RCW 9.41.010.