California Microstamping Requirement Upheld in Court
Californians may be relegated to shooting revolvers soon. On February 27, 2015, a Federal Judge in California over-ruled objections to a California state law requiring that all new semi-auto handguns have microstamping capability. In granting summary judgment to the State, Eastern District Judge Kimberly Mueller halted legal efforts to over-turn microstamping requirements for semi-auto pistols. Unless this District Court ruling is overturned on appeal, this Federal Court decision would effectively ban the sale or possession of most (if not all) new semi-auto handguns in the state.
Editor’s Comment: There is some hope however — the Calguns Foundations said counsel has already appealed the recent ruling to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
The ruling was issued in Peña v. Lindley, a Federal case that pitted California resident Ivan Peña and three other individual plaintiffs against Stephen Lindley, the chief of the California Department of Justice’s Bureau of Firearms.
At issue was California’s microstamping law, which was signed into law in 2007 by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, but which only took effect in 2013. In the two years since the micro-stamping requirement went into effect, no manufacturer has made a new firearm that complies with the requirement. Both Smith & Wesson and Sturm, Ruger & Co., are not shipping their latest (post-2013 design) firearms into the California market because of the microstamping law. Opponents of the law argued that the microstamping requirment was, effectively, a de facto ban on all semi-auto pistols, since not one manufacturer has offered guns that comply with the law.
“This is about the state trying to eliminate the handgun market,” said Alan Gura, the lead attorney in Peña v. Lindley told Fox News last week. “The evidence submitted by the manufacturers shows this is science fiction and there is not a practical way to implement the law.”
The Peña v. Lindley case was argued at the trial court on December 17, 2013. Peña, gun manufacturers, and attorneys for the Second Amendment Foundation and Calguns Foundation argued that microstamping relies on impractical and unworkable technology. The plaintiffs argued that, if guns without the technology can’t be sold in California, and gun manufacturers can’t implement the technology, then the law functions as a de facto handgun ban that violates the Second Amendment.
The Calguns Foundation stated that the group is “disappointed that the district court sidestepped a clear violation of Second Amendment civil rights in its decision today. However, we are absolutely committed to litigating this case as far as necessary to reverse this incorrect ruling and restore the right to keep and bear modern handguns in the Golden State.”
Story based on report in Cheaper that Dirt Shooters’ Log.
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Tags: California, Gun Control, Microstamping, Second Amendment
Gee golly however will I change out a firing pin? I’ll be waiting for the first crime to be committed where the perp tosses down a handful of brass picked up at various ranges, none of them his own of course. Then let the festivities begin!
What is it going to take for NORMAL humans to wake up and take America back from the lawless libs, criminals, and welfare takers????
“Both Smith & Wesson and Sturm, Ruger & Co., have stopped selling new firearms in the California market because of the microstamping law.” ?
Current Turner’s online – http://www.turners.com/guns-handguns-semi-auto/browse/brand/smith-and-wesson
Editor: Those are “previously approved” guns. S&W has not produced new microstamp compliant guns for the California marketplace. If S&W or Ruger wants to put any NEW design semi-auto pistols on the DOJ approved list, those guns must have microstamp capability. There will be “new old stock” firearms available for some period, but eventually there will be no newly-released guns that don’t have microstamp feature.
Amen Amen, THE ONLY PLACE IN THE WORLD WHERE STUPIETY IS born California
I wonder if the criminally minded have discovered sandpaper. Because if they have and they have an extra ten seconds they might be able to to remove the stamping… This coupled with the fact that they will be more mindful of there leavings and will be able to easily frame others may make shootings MORE difficult to solve…
Fear not, the boys at the Calguns Foundation are busy at work.
They’ve recently won in favor of must-issue CCW licenses by County Sherrifs, defended the AR-15 “bullet-button”‘s legality and numerous others.
We don’t let one judge get us down. California is 2nd only to Texas in gun ownership and the community is active and litigious.
The brain of the politicians in Calif. have become addled by the constant earth quakes.
Kevin – what counties are you talking about. I live in LA County and its up to the local PD to decide = fat chance.
JCB – what constant earthquakes??? I cannot remember a quake that was more than very minor in the last 10+ years.