West Coast Exodus: Idaho Gun Store Witnessing Influx of Customers Fleeing Blue State Laws

A gun store owner in Post Falls, Idaho, is seeing a surge in business from Washington residents seeking to escape their state's restrictive gun control laws. The store, North Idaho Arms, is located just minutes from the state line and has become a destination for customers looking to purchase magazines and other accessories that are outlawed in their home state.

In the quiet parking lot outside North Idaho Arms on a recent Saturday morning, owner Bryan Zielinski anticipates the arrival of customers. Many of them will be driving from Washington state, just a short distance to the west.

Over the past few months, Zielinski's gun store has become a popular destination for Washington residents seeking to purchase magazines and other accessories that are now illegal in their home state.

"We're seeing people wanting to make the drive solely just to experience a little bit of freedom, the freedom that they lost in Washington," Zielinski said.

Zielinski himself was a longtime Washingtonian until last June, when he moved his family to Idaho. He had previously managed a large gun store in Bellevue and had advocated against the state's increasingly restrictive gun control laws, but to no avail.

"Some of the most restrictive gun control in the United States is now in western Washington," Zielinski said. "And that all happened in the space of less than three years."

In recent years, Washington state has passed a series of laws aimed at reducing gun violence, including a ban on magazines capable of holding more than 10 rounds, a ban on the sale or import of "assault weapons," and a ban on the manufacture, import, distribution, and sale of high-capacity magazines.

Zielinski believes that these laws are infringing on the rights of law-abiding citizens and that they will ultimately fail to prevent mass shootings.

"Assault weapons" have been used in a relatively small number of mass shootings in the United States, and the majority of mass shootings involve handguns.

Zielinski and his family packed up and moved to Idaho last June, less than two months after Washington Gov. Jay Inslee signed the assault weapons ban into law.

"I really got to see how bad things were starting to get," Zielinski said. "We finally reached a crescendo."

Zielinski opened his own gun store just a five-minute drive across the border from Washington. He spoke to Fox News Digital while sitting in front of a wall of semi-automatic rifles that are now illegal to make, purchase, or sell in his former home state.

He can't sell the banned guns themselves to Washington residents because they require extra processes like a background check and would need to be transferred to a licensed dealer in Washington. But when it comes to replacement parts or magazines, Zielinski says he doesn't "card anybody for anything unless there's a serial number on it."

"We follow all federal laws. We follow all Idaho state laws," he said. "But it is legal in Idaho to buy certain things as an adult that maybe you can't buy in Washington."

Similarly, Idaho plates are a common sight outside marijuana dispensaries on the Washington side of the border. No one is stopping Idahoans from buying pre-rolls or gummies that are banned in their home state.

"At the end of the day, it's on the consumer to make sure they're not breaking the laws of their home state," Zielinski said.

In Washington state, gun stores were abuzz this spring as they awaited a possible injunction against the state's magazine ban. The attorney general had sued a business for continuing to sell magazines after the ban took effect, and the store challenged the law's constitutionality.

In Post Falls, Zielinski took dozens of pre-orders, packaged them, and got them ready to ship.

"The commitment to the customer was that the minute the injunction happens that we were going to get into Washington legally, import those boxes and get those mailed out," he said.

On April 8, a judge ruled the ban violates both the U.S. and Washington state constitutions. The attorney general secured an emergency order from the state Supreme Court 88 minutes later, keeping the ban in place.

Zielinski shipped 147 boxes of magazines during that window.

"I know that we have some happy customers because we've heard from all of them," he said.

He said he is still invested in Washington's Second Amendment future because some of his friends and family members remain "behind the Iron Curtain over there."

"But the main thing is, I've learned from the mistakes of Washington on how we're going to safeguard Idaho," he said. "So if I can work to help Washington and now help Idaho into the future as well, it's kind of a win-win."

Right now, "gun laws are great in Idaho," he said. It's one of nearly 30 states with constitutional concealed carry, has no laws regulating high-capacity magazines or semi-automatic rifles, and even allows residents to own a machine gun as long as it’s registered.

But Zielinski wants to see Idaho's legislators make it illegal for the state to use the Consumer Protection Act to stifle the Second Amendment. And he said he'd like to see more unification in the state's GOP which, like its national counterpart, has become increasingly fractured.

"If we can safeguard Idaho against this liberal mindset," he said, "I think we could be the beacon that other conservative states see and go, ‘We want to be more like Idaho.’"