Photo by: Julie Jacobson
Trade show attendees examine various hand guns in the Smith & Wesson display booth at the Shooting Hunting and Outdoor Tradeshow, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2014, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)
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.