Magazine restrictions are stupid. 

Perhaps the only thing dumber would be willfully violating a magazine ban when you're running a gun store. Unless, of course, you're intending to engage in a little civil disobedience.

Yet if you're going to do that, you'd best be prepared for the repercussions. Civil disobedience is a time-honored tradition in this country, but it doesn't mean you're free from any penalties. That's a fact that seems to have been rammed home for a Washington state gun store.

A suburban Seattle gun shop and its former owner will pay $3 million for selling high-capacity ammunition magazines despite a state ban, the Washington attorney general said Tuesday.

Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced the settlement with Federal Way Discount Guns and Mohammed Baghai after a King County judge found last year that the store and former owner were in violation of Washington’s Consumer Protection Act.

The store and Baghai sold thousands of the magazines that can hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition, after the state law banning them went into effect in 2022, Ferguson has said.

Ferguson said the former owner kept selling them even after the state filed a lawsuit. The attorney general described the violations as "egregious and brazen," The Seattle Times reported.

“Federal Way Discount Guns chose to violate a critical law aimed at combating mass shootings,” Ferguson said in a statement. “Washington businesses are following the law and stopped selling high-capacity magazines. This resolution provides accountability for someone who flagrantly violated the law.

Apparently, a blurb on the website asks for donations to help the store defend itself in the face of Ferguson's attack on Washington state residents' Second Amendment rights.

That means Baghai was either stupid or trying to cover stupid with the guise of civil disobedience, and honestly? That would be even dumber.

No, I think he was trying to make a stand because Washington's magazine ban is unconstitutional and particularly egregious. Especially since people can cross the border into Idaho and buy all the higher-capacity magazines they want. Ferguson isn't going to be able to fine them $3 million, now is he?

Baghai got standing to challenge the ban pretty easily. The problem is that legal battles are expensive. Unless you've got Elon Musk backing you up like Gina Carano has in her fight against Disney, you're going to likely figure out that it's cheaper to just settle.

I don't know if that's what happened or if Baghai just got tired. Either way, I understand entirely.

Unfortunately, he now owes the state $3 million, which is a lot of money for almost anyone who isn't Elon Musk.

However, Ferguson's comments about the settlement are nothing but anti-gun propaganda. Mass shootings can be carried out regardless of magazine restrictions and there's absolutely no chance that this restriction or Federal Way's decision to ignore the ban played a factor one way or another in mass shootings.

That's especially true if you mean true mass shootings, but even by the ridiculous definition favored by anti-gunners, this law hasn't accomplished a damn thing. Ferguson needs to get over himself on that.