California bans the sale of new Glock in the state

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation that bans the sale of new Glock guns in the state, setting off a lawsuit from Second Amendment advocacy groups.

Glocks are among the leading pistols sold in California. Former Vice President Kamala Harris talked about owning such a firearm, but the new law prohibits the sale of the latest such firearm in California.

California’s Democratic supermajority in Sacramento stood up against the pistol’s new design that lets the gun be modified with a Glock switch that can change the gun from semiautomatic to fully automatic. The small piece is already illegal in the state.

The Democratic lawmakers also made illegal the sale of any new gun with a design like Glock. The new law, though, doesn’t prohibit the possession of Glocks or ban reselling used Glocks in the state.

Assembly member Jesse Gabriel introduced the legislation, hoping it would force Glock to change its design so the switches no longer operate.

“[Glock has] known about this design flaw for a long time,” Mr. Gabriel told CBS News California. “They could help save lives.”

If Glock were to redesign the gun, it could be sold in California again.

The current design was grandfathered in before the state passed its strict gun certification laws in 2001 that require Glock to put the gun through a long process to get approved.

The new legislation, signed Friday, was passed along party lines, with all Republican assembly members voting against it.

“California’s restrictive handgun roster already prevents the sale of modern Glock models that are designed to be incompatible with so-called ’Glock switches,’ yet AB 1127 further punishes legal firearm purchasers by limiting their choices while criminals will continue to operate without regard for the law,” the Republican analysis of the bill says.

“Additionally, this bill fails to acknowledge that nearly all semiautomatic pistols could theoretically be considered a ’convertible pistol’ making their definition overly broad and unenforceable,” it says.

The National Rifle Association announced it has filed a lawsuit challenging the new law in federal court.

“Our message to Gov. Newsom is simple: we will see you in court. Gavin Newsom and his gang of progressive politicians in California are continuing their crusade against constitutional rights,” said John Commerford, executive director of the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action.

“Once again, they are attempting to violate landmark Supreme Court decisions and disarm law-abiding citizens by banning some of the most commonly owned handguns in America. This flagrant violation of rights cannot, and will not, go unchecked.”

The new lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California is titled Jaymes v. Bonta.

The NRA is joined in the case by the Second Amendment Foundation, Firearms Policy Coalition, a licensed retailer and two individuals.

“Just as we’ve done in numerous other cases in the state, we will vigorously defend this unconstitutional infringement on the Second Amendment rights of Californians,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb.

“Lawmakers in the state obviously don’t understand that the Second Amendment is not a second-class right; that’s why we have more than a dozen cases currently working their way through California’s legal system.”

Correction: A previous version of this article misidentified the volume of lawsuits that were filed.