Did you know a handgun could expire?
Cheaper Than Dirt ^ | September 24, 2014 | Dave Dolbee
Did you know a handgun could expire? If not, you are probably not from California.
Effective January 1, 2001, no handgun may be manufactured within California, imported into California for sale, lent, given, kept for sale, or offered/exposed for sale unless that handgun model has passed firing, safety, and drop tests and is certified for sale in California by the Department of Justice. Private party transfers, curio/relic handguns, certain single-action revolvers, and pawn/consignment returns are exempt from this requirement.
This is the California-compliant tactile loaded chamber indicator.
Before a new handgun can be sold in California, it must first be certified. Certification in California requires that all handguns to be submitted for “testing” — a process that often ultimately results in the firearm being dropped and later destroyed. Worse yet, every model, caliber, color etc. has to have multiple units submitted making the process extremely costly to the manufacturer. Then, after the manufacturer has made the decision to bite the proverbial bullet and eats the cost to receive certification, the clock starts ticking. According to the logic of California’s rabidly anti-firearms ownership lawmakers, a model that was tested and approved must to be recertified after a period of time, run through the exact same series of tests to prove it still does what the design did when the testers drop tested them the previous time.
It is, by loud and above-board government design, a very frustrating and expensive process causing multiple major manufacturers to forego the California market altogether while others must very significantly increase the cost of California Compliant models. Retail cost often triples. There is a point to reporting on the certification other than demonstrating, yet again, the dangers of failing to get involved in the political process and supporting the national organizations dedicated to preserving your gun rights.
Also, there’s a microstamping requirement, which no manufacturer has implemented. With time, every pistol or double action revolver now on the list will expire and drop off. This will turn into a defacto handgun ban with the exception of single shots and single action revolvers. I guess I’m done buying new handguns except for private party transfers from out of state.
It is hard to believe that back in 1982 the voters REJECTED proposition 15 to ban guns in Cali. Since that day the politicians there have been trying to find all sorts of ways around the will of the people.
Well, I believe they have found a way.