Gun industry balks at California's new micro-stamping law Micro-stamping demand faces 2-pronged challenge

As the gun industry mounts a court challenge to California's new law requiring traceable micro-stamping in all new semiautomatic handgun models, two major gun manufacturers say they've stopped selling updated versions of those weapons in the state because they won't, or can't, comply with the law.

The law, the first of its kind in the nation, requires gunmakers to engrave the serial number in the gun's chamber so that it becomes stamped on each bullet as it is fired, allowing police to identify a weapon from cartridges found at a crime scene. Backed by law enforcement groups, it was passed in 2007 but took effect only last May, when Attorney General Kamala Harris certified that the needed technology was available and a private patent had expired.

Gun advocates immediately declared that the law was pointless because the technology was ineffectual and no manufacturers would comply. Eight months later, they're doing their best to turn their prediction into reality.

First came the legal challenge, filed Jan. 9 in Fresno County Superior Court by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, which represents gun manufacturers, and a second trade association. They are not claiming that the law violates the right to bear arms - a difficult argument in a state with millions of legal firearms - but that compliance is impossible.

"No semiautomatic pistol can be designed or equipped with a microscopic array of characters identifying (a gun's) make, model and serial number" that can be legibly and reliably transferred to the cartridge upon firing, the suit said.

Shown to work

That conflicts with Harris' conclusion last year after an investigation by her office. It's also inconsistent with a successful demonstration of the technology at the Los Angeles Police Academy in 2007, with dozens of officers in attendance, said former Democratic Assemblyman Mike Feuer, the author of the micro-stamping law.

"This is part of a very cynical strategy by the gun lobby and the gun industry ... to try to thwart what safety experts recognize is an innovation that will make all of us safer," Feuer, now the Los Angeles city attorney, said in an interview Friday.

The law does not apply to semiautomatics that were already on the state's list of safe weapons approved for sale as of May, but only to new models submitted for approval since then. No manufacturer has yet produced a micro-stamped pistol for sale in California, and two companies, Ruger and Smith & Wesson, have announced that they won't even try.

This "ill-conceived law ... is forcing Ruger pistols off the roster of handguns certified for sale in California," the company said. It said "numerous studies" have found the technology "unworkable," and promised to "do all we can to fight this draconian law."

Smith & Wesson said Thursday that it would continue to market its previously approved handguns in California but would make no attempt to micro-stamp any new models. The procedure "is unreliable, serves no safety purpose, is cost-prohibitive and, most importantly, is not proven to aid in preventing or solving crimes," the company said.

Models will fade

Although other manufacturers can also sell their pre-May 2013 semiautomatics in California, those models will start disappearing from the shelves, said C.D. Michel, the National Rifle Association's attorney in the state. He said gunmakers continually update their products, and state regulators have decided that virtually any refinement to a handgun makes it a new model, which now requires micro-stamping.

"It's just not feasible for manufacturers to build micro-stamping into their manufacturing process," Michel said. "As a result, the guns they're improving are falling off the roster."

A gun-control advocate in San Francisco predicted that other manufacturers would soon fill the gap.

"If they want to keep making changes to their models, that's their choice," said attorney Cody Jacobs of the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. "The aim of the law ... is handgun safety.

"Millions of guns are sold in California every year. If Smith & Wesson doesn't want that money, another company will gladly take it."