If the new bill goes into affect it would mean that any retailers who sold a "violent video games depicting the killing of a police officer to minors would be fined. Find out more below in the Reuters article.

SEATTLE, June 5 (Reuters) - A Washington state law that seeks to curb the sale of violent video games to minors has been challenged by the gaming industry's main trade group, which filed a lawsuit to strike down the law on Thursday.

The Videogame Violence Bill, which is slated to go into effect from July 27, would fine retail employees in Washington $500 if they sell violent video games depicting the killing of a police officer to anyone under 17.

But the the Interactive Digital Software Association, a gaming industry trade group that include major game makers such as Sony Corp. 6758.T , Microsoft Corp. MSFT.O and Nintendo Co. 7974.OS opposed the law, saying that it infringed the First Amendment free speech rights of game publishers.

"While we share the state's objective to restrict the ability of children to purchase games that might not be appropriate for them, we passionately oppose efforts to achieve this goal by running roughshod over the constitutional rights of video game publishers, developers and retailers to make and sell games that depict images some find objectionable," said Douglas Lowenstein, IDSA's President.

The IDSA filed a lawsuit with the U.S. District Court of Seattle, Washington, on Thursday, "challenging the constitutionality of a recently enacted Washington state statute seeking to ban the sale to minors of certain video games."

A similar law that was passed in 2000 in St. Louis County, Missouri, was struck down this week by the U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled that the law had violated the First Amendment, after a similar challenge by the IDSA.

The St. Louis ordinance required children under 17 to have parental consent before they could purchase violent or sexually explicit video games or play similar games in an arcade.

But Washington State legislator Mary Lou Dickerson, who sponsored the law, said that it would be defensible in court because of its narrow scope, which applies to games that contain violence against game characters in police uniform.

"The lawsuit filed today against Washington's ban on sales or rentals of cop-killing games to children comes as no surprise. Certain elements of the video-game industry clearly want the right to sell any game, no matter how brutal, racist or sick, to any child, no matter how young," Dickerson said.

"I'm confident our common-sense law will be upheld. Unlike the St. Louis ordinance recently struck down by the Eighth District Court of Appeals, our state law is narrowly focused on the compelling state interest of protecting the safety of law enforcement officers and firefighters," Dickerson said.