AN ACT Relating to the imitation firearm manufacturing requirement act; adding a new chapter to Title 70 RCW; and providing an effective date.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

(a) Between 1985 and 1989, there were four hundred ninety reported cases within the United States where a police officer either issued a warning of intent to use deadly force or used deadly force based on the belief that an imitation firearm was a real weapon.

(b) The state of California has enacted Senate Bill No. 199 on September 30, 2014, requiring that any BB device, imitation firearm, replica of a firearm, or other device that is so substantially similar in overall appearance to an existing firearm, must have its exterior colored in bright colors, either singly or as the predominant color in combination with other colors in any pattern or where the entire device is constructed of transparent materials that permits unmistakable observation of the device's complete contents to indicate that it is not a firearm.

(c) In 2010, the total medical costs in Washington state for firearm-related hospitalizations and deaths was seven million dollars. This means that the average medical cost for each of the approximately six hundred seventy-five people who had firearm-related injuries and deaths in the same year was over ten thousand three hundred seventy dollars.

(d) The approximate cost for a gallon of paint in the United States, which would be used on imitation firearms, is fifty dollars. However, the price of the paint required for the plugs used on current immitation firearm muzzles is one hundred ninety-five dollars a gallon.

(e) In 1989, a federally funded experiment was conducted to test the effectiveness of the orange plugs on imitation firearms in revealing that the imitation is not a firearm. The test involved confronting police officers from the Montgomery county and Prince William county, Maryland, and the Fairfax county, Virginia, police departments with actors holding immitation firearms with the orange plug. Ninety-six percent of the police officers failed to see the orange tip and fired.

(2) The purposes of this chapter are:

(a) To reduce the number of injuries and deaths that result from the mistaken appearance of an imitation firearm for a real firearm; and

(b) To reduce the number of people requiring hospitalization, resulting in fewer medical bills being paid for firearm-related injuries and deaths. This will help the state save more of its taxpayer dollars that would normally be used to pay for insurance-covered medical bills.

(1) "Destructive device" means an explosive, incendiary, or poison gas.

(2) "Exterior of the device" means the outer frame of any object classified as a look-alike or imitation of a firearm that is visible.

(3) "Firearm" includes but is not limited to any shotgun, handgun, rifle, destructive device, or any other device that could discharge a shot through the energy of an explosion.

(4) "Look-alike" means a device that closely resembles a firearm.

(5) "Markings" means standing out from the imitation firearm.

(6) "Medical cost" means the amount of money to be paid for any services provided to an individual that resulted from any firearm-related injuries or death.

(7) "Mixture" means two or more of the listed colors are visible, but not added together, to make different shades of the color.

(8) "Transparent" means clear or see-through, so the contents that make up the interior of the device are visible.

(2) Subsection (1) of this section does not apply to a look-alike or imitation firearm that will be used only in the theatrical, movie, or television industries that has been approved by the chief counsel for technology in Washington, D.C.

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