The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) and Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers’ Institute (SAAMI) have jointly filed a motion in Superior Court in Fresno County seeking a preliminary injunction to stop enforcement of California’s microstamping law.
It is the latest development in a lawsuit filed by NSSF and SAAMI in January, according to NSSF spokesman Michael Bazinet. It is also separate from the long-running case of Pena v. Lindley filed by the Second Amendment Foundation. That case also challenges the microstamping requirement.
NSSF noted that the microstamping law was passed in 2007 but only became effective in May of last year. NSSF insists that the law requires gun makers to incorporate an “unproven and unreliable…technology” on semiautomatic handguns sold in California in order to be placed on that state’s approved handgun roster.
“There is no existing microstamping technology that meets the requirement of this ill-considered law,” said Larry Keane, NSSF senior vice president and general counsel. “It is not technologically possible to microstamp two locations in the gun and have the required information imprint onto the cartridge casing. In addition, the current state of the technology cannot reliably, consistently and legibly imprint on the cartridge primer the required identifying information from the tip of the firing pin, the only possible location where it is possible to micro-laser engrave the information.
“The holder of the patent for this technology himself has written that there are problems with it and that further study is warranted before it is mandated,” he continued. “A National Academy of Science review, forensic firearms examiners and a University of California at Davis study reached the same conclusion and the technical experts in the firearms industry agree.
“Manufacturers cannot comply with a law the provisions of which are invalid, that cannot be enforced and that will not contribute to improving public safety,” he noted. “Today, we are seeking injunctive relief against this back-door attempt to prevent the sale of new or upgraded semiautomatic handguns to law-abiding citizens in California.”
The microstamping law requires gun makers to use laser-engraving to engrave the gun’s make, model and serial number on the firing pin and one other place on a semi-auto pistol. Theoretically, this is supposed to cause the gun’s identity to be transferred to the shell casing and primer so criminal investigators could identify the gun from which a fired case came. It is supposed to help solve crimes, but gun makers say it is impossible to comply with the requirement.
