By AWR Hawkins
Washington DC – -(Ammoland.com)- During a January 26th 2014 interview on Tom Gresham’s Gun Talk, Sturm, Ruger, & Co. CEO Michael Fifer said California’s microstamping regulation is being used to “[deny] people their 2nd Amendment rights.”
He said, “The CA DOJ has figured out this is a great way to get guns out of CA, [although doing so] goes way beyond the spirit and intent of the original law.”
The “original law” Fifer references is the microstamping legislation then-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed in 2007. He did so under the false belief that microstamping would be an effective crime-fighting tool. However, the law was implemented in spring 2013 as a way to drive guns out of the state.
On January 24th AmmoLand News reported that Smith & Wesson was going to end sales of its semi-automatic handguns in CA because of the microstamping regulation. On the 24th it was reported that the microstamping regulation was already forcing Ruger semi-automatic handguns out of the state.
Fifer said the microstamping requirement is preventing Ruger firearms from making the “Roster of Handguns Certified for Sale in California,” although microstamping “has nothing to do with whether guns are safe or unsafe. It’s purely political.” He added that it’s “unethical” and “wrong.”
He said the effects of microstamping may have begun showing themselves with Ruger and Smith & Wesson, but “over time this is going to hit every single manufacturer of semi-automatic handguns.” He predicts that “within a year or two,” every semi-automatic by every gun maker will be gone from the “Roster of Handguns Certified for Sale in California.”
Fifer said Ruger is going to fight the microstamping law, but nothing will happen quickly because it’s going to take litigation.
Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter @AWRHawkins.
About:
AWR Hawkins writes for all the BIG sites, for Pajamas Media, for RedCounty.com, for Townhall.com and now AmmoLand Shooting Sports News.
His southern drawl is frequently heard discussing his take on current events on radio shows like America’s Morning News, the G. Gordon Liddy Show, the Ken Pittman Show, and the NRA’s Cam & Company, among others. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal (summer 2010), and he holds a PhD in military history from Texas Tech University.
If you have questions or comments, email him at awr@awrhawkins.com. You can find him on facebook at www.facebook.com/awr.hawkins.