Smith & Wesson the Next Domino to Fall

Smith and Wesson is also pulling out of California. I don’t expect they’ll be the last. My understanding is that any semi-automatic pistol already on the roster of approved handguns is grandfathered, but as soon as a manufacturer makes a single change or improvement to the gun, it has to be re-certified, which is when the micro-stamping requirement kicks in. I know this sucks for folks out in the Golden State, but in reality, I think the more manufacturers that stop selling their wares, the stronger the case gets against micro-stamping being an unconstitutional requirement.

The anti-gun people are unable to get gun bans through thanks to Heller and McDonald. Given that, requiring manufactures to employ a theoretical and unproven technology under the guide of crime fighting is the next best thing, because it has the effect of banning firearms in a way the courts will likely allow them to get away with. Or so they think. The question is whether the federal courts are capable of seeing through such a transparent means to unconstitutionally limit the availability to firearms to law-abiding civilians.

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34 thoughts on “Smith & Wesson the Next Domino to Fall”

  1. Courts might find a problem with requiring businesses implement a PATENTED process.

    1. That’s just it. The inventor of the microstamping technology “generously” allowed his patent to lapse, letting the technology fall into the public domain. Has anyone done any research on who that patent owner was?

  2. Will they refuse to sell guns to cops though and are cops exempt from the requirement?

    1. Refusing to sell to police departments is what will get it repealed. Nothing will change till the only companies willing to sell to LE in CA are Bryco and Jennings….

  3. Microstamping is a crony capitalist scheme- it should be attacked on that basis, as well as proving it doesn’t work anywhere close to 100% of the time, and that it can be easily defeated.

    5

  5. Exempting revolvers shows the law is just BS to decrease availability. Last time I looked a bullet from a revolver can do just as much damage as one from a semi. And if the rationale is to track an owner it makes no sense to exempt wheelguns. Just another baby step toward full banning and confiscation. Grabbers can play a long game when needed.

    1. Actually, exempting revolvers is a nod to reality: Revolvers don’t eject a spent casing every time they are fired, so the utility of requiring it for revolvers is so remote that even California lawmakers can’t ignore it.

      1. In Maryland, you need to provide a spent case when you buy a handgun (at least you did three years ago). Including revolvers. If you don’t have one, you have to pay for a manufacturer FFL to fire a round so they can provide one for you. I believe that exactly zero crimes have been solved using the database.

  6. This is exactly the sort of thing the Commerce Clause was intended to address, the way I see it.

  8. Want to roll back CA Microstamping? Convince the manufacturers to stop selling “exempted pistols” to CA Law Enforcement. If normal people cannot buy it, then they should not sell it to government employees.

  9. In parallel with rd’s comment above, I have absolutely no problem with any gun manufacturer abandoning the California market as long as they abandon the ENTIRE California market.

    The Californicators have exempted law enforcement from the Gun List restrictions; I’d venture that liability still exists for any gun manufacturer still selling to California government agencies in that a lost, stolen or missing “non-compliant gun” probably exposes them to liability. That, plus spineless avoidance of Ronny Barrett’s stand tells us where they stand on the issue, says, “if you support America, you won’t sell to anyone in California.

    We’ll see where Ruger, S&W, Colt, Springfield, et al land on this issue.

    1. Exactly right.
      Ronny showed the entire industry what balls are and everybody just said “Good for him!” and went about their business.
      I’m talking to YOU TOO, AMMO MANUFACTURERS.
      I want the entire industry to abandon CA.
      The sooner they screw themselves totally, maybe the sooner some of the idiots will be voted out. Would suck for CA gun owners but it sucks now and it’s only going to get worse. Might as well pull that bandaid off and be done with it.

      1. If there is a suitable alternative from a company based in a free state and/or which doesn’t sell to LEOs in ban states, I buy from them. Not just firearms stuff, either. I’ve switched telecomm providers and banking, for example.

    2. Quote:Smith & Wesson will continue to sell revolvers, bolt action rifles and its newly-launched Shield and SDVE pistols in California.

      Not quite a total abandonment, either.

  10. It sucks for us Californians, but it had to happen this way. A ban on 10+ round magazines probably passes scrutiny (today’s definition) because so many reduced capacity magazines exist on the market. Though Clinton’s AWB is long expired, we still have to live with effect of 10rd Glock magazines being common and available.

    1. But the fact is it is still a REDUCED capacity mag. If the gun is designed to hold 15, 18, whatever, anything less is a reduction from standard capacity. Just because some people still have reduced capacity mags is not a rational argument to require all to have less rounds than the weapon was designed to hold.

      1. Of course I agree with you. But it seems ultimately what got the 7 rd provision of the unSAFE act thrown out is that 7rd magazines don’t exist.

        1. And by the same rationale as the anti’s use 32 rnd mags should be considered standard as there are 32 rnd Glock mags in general availability as well.

  11. So CA is going to be a veritable crime-free paradise any day now, right?

    Will someone wake me up when that happens?

  12. Hey, it works just like Obamacare. If you like your handgun, you can keep it. But change one thing and it is ungrandfathered.

    1. That, and all those guns that are now illegal, weren’t that great in the first place.

      After all, we can’t trust the customers to decide for themselves, whether they think a given health care plan or gun is sufficient enough for their purposes, can we? Imagine the chaos that will happen, once we start allowing that!

      1. Weren’t that great in the first place? I’m going to call you on that one – explain yourself.

        Merle

        1. It was a play on the Obamacare dodge that the people that are losing their health insurance (because of ObamaCare) are better off because their insurance (that they liked) was substandard anyway.

  13. If microstamping goes to court it will be upheld. Even if ‘smart gun’ technology went to court it would also be upheld. The judges are anti-gun if not openly hostile to gun rights. They will always find a way to weasel there way around supreme court decisions.

    1. There’s a bit of the luck of the draw at work. I agree that the deck is stacked against us, but it’s not quite that hopeless.

    1. Glock has confirmed the 41 and 42 will not be compliant, I assume the others will drop as they are modified or cease production.

      I hope Sig does the same.

      1. They modified the entire lineup when they went to the 4th Generation several years ago. None of the 4th gens are available in CA. I know they’ve ceased production on some models of gen3s. Its just a question of when they stop making the rest.

  15. I’d like to propose a new word. “DeLeon”: to force something, thru sheer will and ignorance, to become unavailable. As in, “I just went out and bought myself a new M&P 45. I wanted to get it before it got DeLeoned.”

    Thoughts?

  16. The NRA has a pdf list of all the guns that have dropped off the approved list for CA. Runs 35 pages! Lots of S&W, Sig, Ruger, including revolvers.

    At approx 25/page, it looks like almost everything is gone.

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