During a January 26th interview on Tom Gresham’s Gun Talk, Sturm, Ruger, & Co. CEO Michael Fifer said California’s microstamping regulation is being used to “[deny] people their 2nd Amendment rights.”
He said, “The CA DOJ has figured out this is a great way to get guns out of CA, [although doing so] goes way beyond the spirit and intent of the original law.”
The “original law” Fifer references is the microstamping legislation then-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed in 2007. He did so under the false belief that microstamping would be an effective crime-fighting tool. However, the law was implemented in spring 2013 as a way to drive guns out of the state.
On January 23rd Breitbart News reported that Smith & Wesson was going to end sales of its semi-automatic handguns in CA because of the microstamping regulation. On the 24th we reported that the microstamping regulation was already forcing Ruger semi-automatic handguns out of the state.
Fifer said the microstamping requirement is preventing Ruger firearms from making the “Roster of Handguns Certified for Sale in California,” although microstamping “has nothing to do with whether guns are safe or unsafe. It’s purely political.” He added that it’s “unethical” and “wrong.”
He said the effects of microstamping may have begun showing themselves with Ruger and Smith & Wesson, but “over time this is going to hit every single manufacturer of semi-automatic handguns.” He predicts that “within a year or two,” every semi-automatic by every gun maker will be gone from the “Roster of Handguns Certified for Sale in California.”
Fifer said Ruger is going to fight the microstamping law, but nothing will happen quickly because it’s going to take litigation.
Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter @AWRHawkins.
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