Tony Canales reported from the SHOT show last week that Ruger will be allowing its handguns to fall off of the California “not unsafe” firearms roster. Ruger CEO Mike Fifer issued this statement clarifying the company’s situation here in the Tarnished Golden State…
Now we learn that Ruger isn’t alone. Smith & Wesson will be allowing its M&P handguns to fall off of the roster as well.
Of course, this was the intended effect of the law. It’s not about allowing police “another tool to solve crimes”, but rather to dry up the supply of handguns available to law abiding Californians. Many many people floated ideas about how to defeat microstamping when the law was being debated. Their thinking at the time was to show legislators that the law is pointless as a law enforcement tool. The engineers in the crowd, however, pointed out that the law requires manufacturing techniques that are nonexistent. Furthermore, instead of making handguns “safe”, or make that “not unsafe” (Yes, that’s really how the law refers to the list!), irregularities in a gun’s chamber will eventually lead to a failure of the metal. But none of that registered with our betters in Sacramento. Why? Because safety and law enforcement weren’t the point of the law. The point was to stop legal handgun sales in California. Need proof? Compare these two lists…
Let’s be glad that the 2nd list wasn’t actually printed on dead trees.
The Calguns Foundation produced this graph showing what handgun availability will be like in the coming years in California…
The effect of the law is going to be more immediate than most people expected. You would have been dismissed as an unhinged gun-nut had you suggested a few years ago that the supply of new handgun models would dry up by 2020. But that’s what’s happening. By mandating manufacturing processes that require unicorn spit to work, the State is making the clever workarounds some people proposed way back when a moot point. You can’t use a Scotchbrite pad to remove the pesky microstamp from your new gun if there are no new guns.
There is hope, however. The NSSF has filed suit in Fresno County to stop the State’s mystical microstamping mandate.
Stay tuned.
One Response
Stay in touch with the conversation, subscribe to the RSS feed for comments on this post.
Continuing the Discussion
You must be logged in to post a comment.