A federal judge has blocked a California law mandating the inclusion of certain safety features in semiautomatic handguns sold in the state.
On Monday (March 20), U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney ruled in the California Rifle and Pistol Association’s (CRPA) favor. The CRPA had been joined by four individuals in the lawsuit, with the group asserting that the law is a violation of the Second Amendment, which affords individuals the right to keep and bear arms.
In the lawsuit, the group noted that the California law would effectively mean no Calidnronian resident could purchase a gun, as no current manufacturing standards complied with the safety features listed in the law.
In the lawsuit, the group explained that the state legislation meant California gun buyers could only purchase guns manufactured before 2013, when the law went into effect.
The state’s Unsafe Handgun Act of 2001, which is the legislation disputed by CPRA, requires newly manufactured semiautomatic guns to contain an indicator that shows whether or not there was a round in the chamber and a mechanism that would stop accidental discharge when a magazine hadn’t been fully inserted.
The law would also require handguns to apply microstamping to discharged bullets, giving each bullet fired a serial number connecting it to the gun that fired it.
In his ruling, Carney, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, explained that the state hadn’t mentioned historical parallels for its laws, adding that California residents shouldn’t have “to settle for decade-old models of handguns.”
