Stans Merry Mart To Cease Gun Sales Due To New Sales Regulations

Stan's Merry Mart in Wenatchee, WA is getting out of the firearms business after more than 11 years.

Company president Brandon Wright says the decision to end firearms sales by July 1st in 2025 was a business decision based on the Washington State lLegislature's passage of HB 2118

Wright says three specific elements of the new laws will make it impossible for Stan's to continue selling firearms;

Reguirements for steel bars be installed on all windows and locking roll up exterior doors placed on every entrance
Overnight storage requirements of all firearms in inventory in a fireproof safe
Requirements to record audio and video conversations with all customers and retain records for seven years

Wright says Stans could possibly have adapted to meet some of the storage requirements with a remodeling of the store but the current layout would be cost prohibitive in terms of labor costs to meet the new law's requirements.

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Placing bars on exterior windows is not a welcoming retail shopping environment in Wright's estimation.

He called the requirement to capture every customer entering the store on video and record their conversations with employees at the gun counter "a deal breaker" including stipulations the data be retained for 7 years.

"When you sprinkle on top that we don't know if and when the next batch of legislation is going to drop in Washington state around firearms. If I knew this was the last thing they that they did, we would probably stay in the gun business. But what this state has shown over the last three years especially and over the last decade is that they are very aggressive in targeting the gun industry and doing everything they can to make it extremely difficult to do business"

Stan’s will not be selling firearms once the bill goes into effect. Wright suspects other local gun retailers will do the same.

HB 2118 was passed in March and will go into effect July 1^st, 2025.

The bill was sponsored by Rep. Amy Wallen, D-Kirkland “It’s about keeping firearms safe – the inventory safe,” Wallen testified Feb. 19th at the public hearing in the Senate Law & Justice Committee. “It’s about promptly reporting incidents. And it’s about the ability of law enforcement to track straw purchases.”

Opponents fear the legislation is punitive for small gun dealers in Washington.

Troy Nichols from the National Shooting Sports Foundation said the legislation was the wrong approach.

“The stated purpose of House Bill 2118 is to prevent firearm thefts and straw purchases at dealerships,” Nichols cited federal and state data that show "less than 2 percent of all firearm thefts in Washington state occur at FFLs.”

Sen. Lynda Wilson, R-Vancouver called the bill " a death sentence on dealers." Her remarks were summarized in a news release

“The anti-gun extremists are finally realizing they can’t seize firearms from law-abiding people, or regulate them away, so this bill goes after the supply side of the equation"
Sen. Lynda Wilson, R-Vancouver

Wilson argues the law as proposed "would basically smother the retailers who are unable to comply with the new mandates, and that means most, if not all, in our state. I also don’t see how gun shows will be able to survive this.”