Judge blocks California law requiring safety features for handguns

[March 21, 2023]  By Brendan Pierson

(Reuters) -A federal judge on Monday blocked California from enforcing a state law requiring new semiautomatic handguns to have certain safety features, finding it violates the right to bear arms under the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney in Santa Anna, California is the latest in a line of decisions striking down state gun laws following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year expanding gun rights. The judge said it would not take effect for 14 days to give the state a chance to appeal.

The California Rifle & Pistol Association and four individuals sued the state last year to challenge the law. The association hailed the ruling while the office of California Attorney General Rob Bonta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The 2001 law, known as the Unsafe Handgun Act, requires new semiautomatic handguns to have an indicator showing when there is a round in the chamber and a mechanism to prevent firing when the magazine is not fully inserted, both meant to prevent accidental discharge. It also requires that they stamp a serial number onto bullets they fire, known as microstamping.

A previous challenge to the law was rejected by the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2018. But the new lawsuit was filed less than six weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that gun control measures must be consistent with the nation's historical tradition of gun control regulation.

Customers view semi automatic guns on display at a gun shop in Los Angeles, California December 19, 2012. Gun shops report increase in sales since the Connecticut school massacre. REUTERS/Gene Blevins

The plaintiffs said the law failed that test and severely restricted Californians' right to own guns, because no new guns are being manufactured that comply with the requirements. That means buyers in the state are limited to models from before 2013, when the law fully took effect, the plaintiffs said.

Carney, who was appointed by Republican former President George W. Bush, agreed, finding the plaintiffs were likely to win and granting their request for a preliminary order blocking the law.

He said the state had failed to point to any historical parallel for it and that Californians "should not be forced to settle for decade-old models of handguns."

Chuck Michel, president of the California association, said: "If we can hold on to this great Second Amendment win, people will be able to choose from among thousands of the latest, greatest and safest handguns made today."

(Reporting By Brendan Pierson in New York, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi, Bill Berkrot and Cynthia Osterman)

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