The California Supreme Court on Thursday threw out a lawsuit brought about by the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) which sought to pause enforcement of part of a law that required new semi-automatic firearms stamp identifying information on its casings.
According to the NSSF, the technology does not currently exist, making it impossible for gun manufacturers to comply with the law.
"Neither the text nor the purpose of the [Unsafe Handgun] Act contemplates that a showing of impossibility can excuse compliance with the statutory requirement once the statute goes into effect," the court said in its decision.
The NSSF disagreed with the Court's findings.
"Our lawsuit did not seek to invalidate the law in its entirety, but rather to enjoin its enforcement until such time as the technology developed to make it possible to comply with the law," Larry Keane, Senior Vice President for Government and Public Affairs and Assistant Secretary and General Counsel for the NSSF, told Townhall. "As Justice Chin’s concurring opinion notes, the Court acknowledges that the application of statutes can be excused based on impossibility of performance. That is the current state of the technology and all that our lawsuit sought by way of judicial relief."
According to the NSSF, this law punishes law abiding gun owners in California by preventing them from purchasing the latest, more improved model of handguns.
The unfortunate result of today’s decision is that law abiding citizens in California exercising their Second Amendment rights will continue to be denied by the State of California the ability to purchase the newest and improved models of handguns."
"Since the law was certified in 2013 by then Attorney General Harris, the number of models available to purchase has already been cut roughly in half," Keane told Townhall. "As we predicted when the law was enacted, California is experiencing a slow motion handgun ban as fewer and fewer models are allowed to be sold in the state. California is to handguns what Cuba is to cars; only old models are available."
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