Smith & Wesson announced it will stop selling its handguns in California rather than manufacture them to comply with the new microstamping law. The other publicly traded firearms manufacturer in the U.S., Sturm, Ruger, also said this month that it will stop new sales to California.
The announcement late Wednesday came a week after the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), the trade association for firearms manufacturers, filed suit against California for requiring that all new semi-automatic pistols that are not already on the state’s approved gun roster have the microstamping technology.
Microstamping is a patented process that, in theory, would have a unique code on the tip of a gun’s firing pin that would engrave that information on the casing when fired.
Smith & Wesson President and CEO James Debney said, “As our products fall off the roster due to California’s interpretation of the Unsafe Handgun Act, we will continue to work with the NRA and the NSSF to oppose this poorly conceived law which mandates the unproven and unreliable concept of microstamping and makes it impossible for Californians to have access to the best products with the latest innovations.”
Mr. Debney added that he encourages the public to “support the NSSF’s lawsuit and other efforts to stop microstamping, before it impacts your constitutional rights.” The law was passed in 2007 but did not go into effect until May 2013.
The company reported that all M&P pistols (other than the M&P Shield) will fall off the roster by August because of performance enhancements, which will make them subject to the microstamping regulation. The M&P9c has already been taken off the list, and several more M&P models will be unavailable for Californians to purchase by the end of January.
Smith & Wesson will continue to sell revolvers, bolt action rifles and its newly-launched Shield and SDVE pistols in California.
The District of Columbia is the only other place in the country that has mandated microstamping. It was supposed to go into effect on Jan. 1, but the city council passed an emergency measure in December to postpone it until 2016.
A spokesman for Phil Mendelson, the city council chairman who wrote the D.C. law, told me that, “The decision to delay was made recently in order to piggyback on the California program and create more of a market for gun manufacturers.”
In other words, there were no manufacturers willing to stick this unproven contraption on their firearms, which meant no new ones could be sold in the city.
While that would fit with the District’s anti-gun agenda, the politicians are clever enough to know that banning all new guns would just help the plaintiffs in the Heller II case that is challenging all the registrations laws written in 2009.
Microstamping is simply a ban on guns. California and D.C. will have a short period to enjoy their gun grab until the courts rule that this dictate violates the Second Amendment.
Emily Miller is senior editor of opinion for The Washington Times and author of “Emily Gets Her Gun” (Regnery, 2013).
Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/jan/22/smith-wesson-stop-selling-guns-california-due-micr/#ixzz2pG7JohUP
Another reason for the state of Jefferson.
And here’s another
Dan Walters: Perhaps Brown’s tax hike wasn’t needed after all
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2014/01/20/6085108/dan-walters-perhaps-browns-tax.html#storylink=cpy
“The rest is being used for other purposes, including a boost in welfare grants, prisons, state employee pay hikes and other categories that the campaign carefully avoided mentioning.”
It is simply a BS liberal anti gun ideology in play to eliminate ownership of semi-auto handguns by law abiding gun owners. It will not reduce gun crime or even assist in tracking down criminal use of guns.which is the problem, so address it properly Sacramento with out punishing legal gun ownership.
Once more our Liberal lop sided California assembly of Gun hating politicians is a further reach of the power brokering desires of Kamala Harris(and the Obama administration in DC)to stop guns sales altogether in California.
Hopefully the law suits that will follow(at sadly a waste of tax payer dollars) will prove this unnecessary and single purpose bias abstraction of second amendment rights ridicules and invalid, should clearer heads prevail.
Burns yer butt, Bob (and Tina, and Jack), don’t it !?
All that wailing: “the state is ruined forever!!” … all fixed, by just of few months’ worth of capital gains taxes.
And we’ve learned our lesson. The Dem heads of the Leg, bless them, have conceded that lots of the surplus should be squirreled away … cause the Dow at 16200 was totally bogus, and we all anticipate yet another “Black Friday” is in the offing.
Other people have NOT learned their lesson. The big black mark on the O-man’s legacy is going to be cozying up to Larry Summers and the rest of them arrogant, greedy, Wall Street Weazels.
Nothing has been fixed. Colliefornia (as Ahnold calls it) is a basket case. Colliefornia is one of the worst run states in the country and we will pay big time for what the Demoncrats have done.
http://www.policymic.com/articles/79403/the-state-in-the-worst-fiscal-condition-in-america-is
In terms of freedom Colliefornia is also one of the worst states in the country (actually the second worst).
http://benswann.com/study-us-states-ranked-by-freedom/
Of course in terms of freedumb Colliefornia is right up there.
Thanks liberal, progressives and all you Demoncrats.
Well love may keep you together but Obammie Care will break you apart! Put that in your skull mug, Libby.
http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2014/01/23/is-obamacare-forcing-the-captain-and-tennille-to-divorce/
More Obammiecare horror stories…
Obamacare Bronze Level Plan Deductible More Than Double Average Families Savings
http://forums.benswann.com/showthread.php?196-Obamacare-Bronze-Level-Plan-Deductible-More-Than-Double-Average-Families-Savings
Libby: “…all fixed, by just of few months’ worth of capital gains taxes.”
California got a very big windfall in cap gains taxes that won’t repeat year after year BECAUSE of the higher rate. One of the bigger donors was the Facebook guy who grabbed all he could and left the country.
The “fix” is an illusion of happenstance and accounting gimmicks.
Bloomberg:
And you fell for old Jerry’s line because you still do not understand money, how to make the economy work, or wealth building.
More bad news…a lot of California municipalities and counties are also in deep financial trouble.
Keep living the dream…with those eyes wide SHUT!
“Nothing has been fixed.”
Dude, the budget is balanced. We’s in the black. I know you don’t like it, but it’s a fact … so don’t deny it. Makes you look irrational.
You can criticize, say, the scheme under which any rainy day fund might be organized. Them Dems can be very cagey about that sort of thing, and have to be watched. Your poor city counsel is trying to sort out some “creative” accounting combined with willful denial … and having a high old time.
Planning for future reductions in revenue has to be genuine, a genuine restructuring of revenue sources and collection in this state.
And you can try an persuade us that Repugs would actually do this. Unhappily, there is not a shred of evidence from any state in the nation to support this claim.
Another stupid law from the Democratic party machine monster that strangles this state. Progressives must be pleased.