It's only been a couple of months since California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared he's not anti-gun during an interview with podcaster Shawn Ryan, and I suspect we're about to learn just how hollow his professed support for the Second Amendment really is.
Over the weekend the California legislature gave its final stamp of approval to AB 1127, a bill that will outlaw the sale of Glock handguns throughout the state starting on July 1, 2026. Everytown for Gun Safety cheered the passage of the gun ban bill, noting that its supporters sent more than 130,000 emails to California lawmakers pushing for the legislation.
In a press release, Everytown claimed that, "because the gun industry has chosen to put profits over public safety, firearms that can be easily converted into machine guns are readily available," which is utter nonsense. California already has a roster of handguns that are approved for sale by the state's Department of Justice, so if guns that can easily be converted into full auto are "readily available", it's only because CalDOJ has given the thumbs up to their sale.
Everytown also noted a provision in the legislation that supposedly allows Glock to keep its guns on the market.
If the manufacturers impacted by the bill decide to fix the dangerous design that allows their guns to be easily converted into machine guns, they can resume selling in California as long as they comply with other existing laws. The bill exempts future sales to law enforcement and the military.
Note the fine print about complying with other existing laws. Glock's Gen 3 models have been grandfathered in to the state's Handgun Roster, but Gen 4 and Gen 5 models, which aren't as susceptible to illegal modification, aren't available for sale because they don't comply with California's mandate that all semi-automatic firearms come with "safety" features like a magazine disconnect mechanism and microstamping technology. The microstamping mandate is on hold thanks to the Boland v. Bonta lawsuit, but if Glock decided to make any design changes to its Gen 3 model it would still have to resubmit the pistol to CalDOJ for certification, and unless it's compliant with the handgun roster requirements it would be rejected.
So no, there is no easy way for Glock to "fix" the design of the models that currently available for sale to comply with AB 1127 and the existing restrictions imposed by the handgun roster. In my opinion, the amendment is a cheap gimmick to make the anti-gun politicians who voted in favor of this ban appear reasonable, because most folks have no clue about the ins-and-outs of California's interconnected gun control schemes.
Will Newsom sign the bill into law? He has yet to reject any anti-gun proposal that's reached his desk, and I'd be surprised if he rejects this one. The gun control lobby is investing a lot of time and energy going after Glock around the country, including lawsuits seeking a ban on their sale in Illinois and Maryland, and my guess is that Newsom will simply parrot Everytown's talking points and claim this is just a reasonable, common sense measure to protect public safety before putting pen to paper.
With California serving as a laboratory of experimentation for the gun control lobby, we can expect similar bills to be introduced in other blue states in the coming months as well. The Supreme Court has already ruled that a ban on all handguns violates the Second Amendment and stated that arms that are in common use for lawful purposes are also protected by the Constitution, but until the Court shuts this down we're going to have to deal with more attempts to prohibit the sale of one of the most popular handguns in the country.
Editor’s Note: The gun control lobby will stop at nothing to enact their radical agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.
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