California (more specifically, the state legislature and Gavin Newsom) just banned Glocks, the most common firearms in the country by far, for being "unsafe", claiming they are too easy to convert into machine guns.
The government claims Glock could have updated their designs to make these illegal conversions harder, that their refusal to do so puts blood on their hands.
In reality, California law is the reason those updates were never made! California (more specifically, Kamala Harris) decided in 2001 that all new handgun designs needed to include microstamping, a non-existent but patented technology that engraves every round with two unique serial numbers as they are fired. Existing designs were grandfathered in, but any changes whatsoever, even texture or color changes, would require this new non-existent technology. It is worth noting that she did so by specifically warranting that the technology was commercially available, which triggered a provision in an existing piece of legislation despite not being true.
As a result, California has been stuck with Glocks designed in 1998. There have been several generations of updates in every other state that make them safer in a variety of ways. It is crazy to blame Glock for not updating their designs in California when the law prohibits them from doing so.
Oct 25, 2025 · 8:10 PM UTC
