SHB 1240 — Firearms/assault weapons
SHB 1240 was introduced in the 2023-24 Washington legislative session by Representative Peterson. It became law.
- 2023-24 session
- House
- Became law
- 2 public hearings
- Sponsor: CRJ(Peterson
Source Washington State Legislature web services: legislation, hearings and roll calls · as of 2026-08-12 · introduced 2023-01-30
01
Where it stopped
Became law
- Last recorded action
- Effective date 4/25/2023.
- Session law
- C 162 L 23 — chapter and year in the session laws
- Last committee
- Senate Law & Justice — the last committee with this bill on an agenda
- Public hearing
- Yes — 2 on record — a public hearing is where testimony is taken; an executive session is where a committee votes
Source WA Legislature legislation service · as of 2026-08-12
02
What it would do
The Legislature’s own description. We do not paraphrase legislation.
Establishing firearms-related safety measures to increase public safety.
Legal title AN ACT Relating to establishing firearms-related safety measures to increase public safety by prohibiting the manufacture, importation, distribution, selling, and offering for sale of assault weapons, and by providing limited exemptions applicable to licensed firearm manufacturers and dealers for purposes of sale to armed forces branches and law enforcement agencies and for purposes of sale or transfer outside the state, and to inheritors;
Source WA Legislature legislation service · as of 2026-08-12
03
The votes
Recorded floor votes. Committee votes are in the hearing record below.
HOUSE · 2023-03-08
3rd Reading & Final Passage
55
yea
42
nay
1
absent or excused
SENATE · 2023-04-08
376 McCune Pg 15 Ln 1
22
yea
26
nay
1
absent or excused
SENATE · 2023-04-08
3rd Reading & Final Passage as Amended by the Senate
27
yea
21
nay
1
absent or excused
SENATE · 2023-04-18
452 Wagoner Pg 13 Ln 34
24
yea
25
nay
SENATE · 2023-04-18
449 Padden Pg 15 Ln 5
21
yea
28
nay
SENATE · 2023-04-18
3rd Reading & Final Passage as Amended by the Senate
28
yea
21
nay
HOUSE · 2023-04-19
Final Passage as Amended by the Senate
56
yea
42
nay
Source WA Legislature roll call service · as of 2026-08-12 · 7 recorded votes
04
Sponsors
Who put their name to the bill. The Legislature records a prime sponsor on the bill status; the full co-sponsor roster appears only in the introduced bill text, which we have not ingested.
Prime sponsor
CRJ(Peterson
as printed the sponsor line on the bill status record · introduced in the House. A committee substitute prints the committee here, with the originating member in parentheses.
The co-sponsor roster is not on this page. We hold the prime sponsor the Legislature prints on the bill status, not the list of co-sponsors, which is published only in the introduced bill text we have not ingested. A co-sponsor count here would be a number no record we hold contains.
Source WA Legislature legislation service · as of 2026-08-12
05
The hearing record
Every committee meeting where this bill appeared on the agenda. Public is where testimony is taken; Executive is where the committee votes.
| Date | Type | Committee | Chamber |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-01-17 | Public | House Civil Rights & Judiciary | House |
| 2023-01-27 | Executive | House Civil Rights & Judiciary | House |
| 2023-03-23 | Public | Senate Law & Justice | Senate |
| 2023-03-28 | Executive | Senate Law & Justice | Senate |
Source WA Legislature committee hearing records · as of 2026-08-12 · 2 public, 2 executive
06
What changed between versions
| Version | Substitute | Engrossed | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| HB 1240 | — | — | 1st substitute bill substituted. |
| SHB 1240 | 1 | — | Effective date 4/25/2023. |
We do not hold the bill text, so we cannot say what changed. The version list shows that the bill was rewritten and how many times. Comparing the substance of two versions needs the text of each, which we have not ingested. The Legislature publishes both.
Last checked 2026-08-12
Source WA Legislature legislation service · as of 2026-08-12
08
What this page will not compute
Each of these is a number a reader might reasonably expect. None of them follow from the records we hold, so we do not publish them.
- Who killed it
- We can say a bill was never scheduled for a public hearing. We cannot say who decided that. Chairs control agendas, but the record does not attribute a non-decision to a person, and we will not infer one from a committee roster.
- Why it died
- Withdrawn, superseded by its own companion, folded into a budget, or simply never taken up — all four look identical in the data.
- Whether lobbying affected it
- Washington collects lobbyist compensation and employer registrations, but none of those filings name a bill. There is no documented link between a lobbying report and a bill number, so we publish none.
- What changed between versions
- We hold the version list, not the text of each version.
- How a member would have voted
- Only recorded votes appear here. A member absent from a roll call is recorded as absent, not as opposed.
09
Common questions
- What happened to SHB 1240?
- SHB 1240 became law. The Legislature’s status record places it at “C 162 L 23” — its chapter and year in the session laws.
- Who sponsored SHB 1240?
- The prime sponsor of record is CRJ(Peterson, as printed on the bill status. This page does not list co-sponsors — that roster is published only in the introduced bill text, which we have not ingested.
- What would SHB 1240 do?
- In the Legislature’s own description: “Establishing firearms-related safety measures to increase public safety.” We quote the official language rather than summarising, because a paraphrase of legislation is an interpretation.
- Was there a recorded vote on SHB 1240?
- Yes. 7 recorded floor votes appear on this page, member counts and all. Committee votes are held separately as scanned sign-off sheets and are not counted here.
- Did SHB 1240 get a public hearing?
- Yes — 2 public hearings are on record. A public hearing is where testimony is taken; it is not the committee vote, which happens in an executive session.
Cite this page
This is public-records reporting. Use it, and say where it came from.
“SHB 1240 — Firearms/assault weapons,” WashingtonIndependents.org, data as of 2026-08-12, accessed 2026-08-19. https://washingtonindependents.org/bill/2023-24-hb-1240/
10
How this page is built
Every figure above is read from a primary source and rebuilt on a schedule. Nothing here is modelled or inferred; where a source is silent the page says so rather than filling the gap.
- WA Legislature legislation service
- Bill id, titles, sponsor, introduced date, and the history line and location code we render as its status.
- WA Legislature committee hearing records
- Every committee agenda this bill appeared on, and whether each was a public hearing or an executive session.
- WA Legislature roll call service
- Recorded floor votes, member by member.
- Outcome
- Derived, not published by the Legislature. Enacted means a chapter number or effective date is on record; died is only ever assigned once a session has ended; a sitting session yields pending and no death is asserted.
- Not loaded
- Bill text, amendments, committee votes as individual member records, testimony, and fiscal notes.