BELLEVUE, WA – The Second Amendment Foundation today is wondering how far Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson will go to politicize his agency, after hiring Ben Carr, identified by the Alliance for Gun Responsibility—a Seattle-based gun control group—as vice president of its foundation board of directors.
The Alliance filed a motion to intervene as a defendant in a federal lawsuit filed by SAF and the Firearms Policy Coalition challenging Washington State’s ban on so-called “large capacity magazines” in which Ferguson is named as one of the defendants, in his official capacity.
“Why should the Alliance think Ferguson needs their help to defend the ban,” wondered SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “After all, they’ve got their own man working in the Attorney General’s office.”
When the lawsuit was filed, Ferguson vowed to “vigorously defend” the law, insisting “This challenge will not succeed.”
“If he’s so confident,” Gottlieb questioned, “Why does he need the help of a billionaire-backed, radical advocacy organization?
“Bob Ferguson has politicized and weaponized the Attorney General’s office,” Gottlieb said, “and having a senior official from a gun prohibition advocacy organization on staff while he is a defendant in a federal lawsuit challenging a gun control law he will defend appears highly questionable, to say the least.
“It’s disgusting,” he added, “and a slap-in the face to every Washington State gun owner that Ferguson has put a member of the board of a gun ban advocacy group on his staff at taxpayer expense. The public should be outraged, and the question now needs to be asked, has Attorney General Ferguson crossed the line of ethical propriety?”
The lawsuit was filed in June, in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington. It is known as Sullivan, et.al. v. Ferguson, et.al.