<
Smith & Wesson announced yesterday that they will be joining Sturm, Ruger, & Co., in stopping the sale of all semi-automatic handguns in the State of California. The two companies made the announcement after California started requiring all semi-automatic handguns to have a microstamped firing pin – an unproven process that would have added millions of dollars in manufacturing cost just to be able to sell in California.
The announcement comes as the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), the trade association for firearms manufacturers, filed suit against California for requiring 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 embed a unique code on the tip of a gun’s firing pin that would engrave that information on the casing when fired. Unfortunately for Californians, the process has proven unreliable and too costly for manufactures to risk making such a large investment to change their manufacturing processes.
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.”
With two of the big manufacturers out of CA, who will jump in and kowtow to CA demands? If Colt makes that move, I swear I’ll trade my Colt 1911 in on an SR1911 from Ruger!