WA gun store sued by AG for allegedly selling illegal high-capacity magazines

A consumer protection lawsuit was filed in Cowlitz County Superior Court on Tuesday by the Washington State Attorney General’s Office against a gun store in Kelso for illegally selling high-capacity magazines, which were outlawed in the state in 2022.

According to a news release from the AG, Gators Custom Guns is accused of continuing to sell potentially thousands of high-capacity magazines after the ban went into effect. The AG contends that the store “intentionally violated the Consumer Protection Act when it unlawfully offered 11,408 high-capacity magazines for sale to the public.”

Washington state law limits the maximum ammunition capacity in magazines to 10 rounds and prohibits manufacturing, distributing, selling or offering for sale magazines with a higher capacity.

An investigator from the AG’s Office visited the store two separate times in May and reported being sold a total of five high-capacity magazines, including by the owner, the news release said.

According to the AG’s Office, Gators “is among the state’s largest and most persistent purchasers of high-capacity magazines from out-of-state distributors.”

“Upon visiting the retailer, investigators observed numerous shop displays — barrels and boxes filled with magazines that covered a substantial portion of the store’s retail space,” the release says. “It is the largest display investigators have seen to date as part of the office’s sweep. The Attorney General’s Office tried obtaining records from Gators to determine how much of that inventory it distributed, but the store was uncooperative.”

While the Attorney General’s Office aims to force the retailer to stop selling and stocking the magazines, the office is also seeking civil penalties for violations of the Consumer Protection Act. Gators could potentially face a maximum of $7,500 for every time they sold the magazines or offered to sell them.

“Our sweep continues to show that an overwhelming majority of gun retailers in Washington are doing the right thing and complying with the law,” AG Bob Ferguson said. “In contrast, Gators Custom Guns intentionally built a retail stockpile that exceeds anything my office has seen since the ban went into effect. My office will continue to enforce this common-sense law.”

Walter Wentz, the owner of Gators Custom Guns, told McClatchy that he and his business are being represented by the Silent Majority Foundation in the lawsuit. While he was unable to make any comment regarding the lawsuit itself, he said that he intends to add updates about the lawsuit to the store’s Facebook page.

In a Substack post by the Silent Majority Foundation from Aug. 24, the organization noted that they had filed a Petition to Set Aside and for Injunctive and Declaratory Relief against the AG’s issuance of a Civil Investigative Demand on behalf of Gators on Aug. 23.

“The AG uses CIDs to conduct investigations into business practices that violate the Consumer Protection Act — in this case, Gators alleged sales of so-called ‘Large Capacity Magazines.’ The AG can use any such information to prosecute charges under the Consumer Protection Act,” the foundation said.

“SMF is challenging the issuance of this CID as the AG is using this as a tool to conduct a wild goose chase to confirm his belief that Gators sold these magazines,” Pete Serrano, the Silent Majority Foundation’s General Counsel, said in the post. “It’s a sad day when the AG wants nothing more than to punish a lawful place of business simply to win political points.”

Ferguson’s office continues to do sweeps of gun stores across the state to identify retailers who violate the law. More than 100 stores have been visited by investigators.

This is not the only time the AG’s Office has sued a gun retailer in Washington for selling high-capacity magazines. Ferguson sued Federal Way Discount Guns in December 2022 after investigators conducted a sweep.

That store was held in contempt for intentionally violating a court order after a King County judge issued a preliminary injunction to stop the store from selling high-capacity magazines. While the judge later ruled that the business had violated the Consumer Protection Act and ordered them to pay the AG’s fees, the court has yet to determine the amount of civil penalties.

Additionally, two months after the ban went into effect, investigators found that WGS Guns in Lakewood illegally sold high-capacity magazines to customers, resulting in a $15,000 fine for the store. An assurance of discontinuance was filed by the AG to require the business to stop listing and selling high-capacity magazines on its website.