Trump administration sues California over ‘Glock ban’ law
California’s effort to restrict sales of handguns that can be converted into fully automatic machine guns led to an urgent federal issue Wednesday; The Trump administration sued the state just hours after the new “Glock ban” law went into effect.
The U.S. Department of Justice is seeking a court order to block a controversial state law limiting where Glock and most Glock-style handguns can be sold. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, also seeks to invalidate key parts of the state’s handgun list — a list that determines the types of firearms Californians can legally purchase. In a statement on Wednesday, acting Atty. Gen. Todd Blanche said both policies “trampled” on the rights of law-abiding Californians.
“The Second Amendment is a sacred right that belongs to all Americans, even those in California,” Blanche said. “California cannot ban the most popular type of handgun in America.”
California’s Assembly Bill 1127 does not explicitly name the Glock brand, instead targeting any gun with a specific mechanism that can be easily converted by a black market device. These simple “Glock switches” transform a semi-automatic pistol into a weapon that can fire 20 rounds per second with a single pull of the trigger.
Advances in 3D printing have made conversion devices widely available and inexpensive to manufacture. Federal officials reported that 11,088 people were rescued from crime scenes between 2019 and 2023. sacramento Incident resulting in six deaths and 12 injuries in 2022.
The new law does not ban the possession of affected handguns currently owned by Californians and includes exemptions for gun dealers as well as law enforcement and military institutions.
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the bill in October, arguing that firearm laws were responsible for California’s drop in crime rates and gun deaths.
“The Trump administration is once again trying to dismantle California’s common-sense gun safety laws,” the governor’s spokeswoman, Diana Crofts-Pelayo, said in a statement. “Our answer is simple: these laws save lives.”
The federal government argues in its complaint that California cannot ban legal semiautomatic handguns simply because they can be modified illegally, adding that state and federal law already ban such handgun converters. The US likened California’s approach to banning ordinary shotguns on the grounds that they could be illegally shortened.
The lawsuit also challenges California’s decades-old handgun registry, which requires new handgun models to pass certain safety tests before being approved for retail sale. A federal judge temporarily blocked parts of the tenure requirements in a separate 2023 case that is being appealed to the 9th Circuit. This lawsuit was filed by the California Rifle & Pistol Assn. and other gun rights supporters in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark 2022 decision that set new standards for evaluating firearm restrictions.
Under these new guidelines, the Trump administration wants a judge to find that California’s gun restrictions violate the 2nd Amendment and is seeking an order that would prohibit the state from enforcing those restrictions.
The Trump administration is relying on federal civil rights law typically used against police departments accused of repeated constitutional violations, according to California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta and state Department of Justice agents qualify as peace officers and therefore violate gun owners’ rights when they enforce handgun restrictions.
Bonta, named in the lawsuit, has a winning court record against the Trump administration and has obtained at least 12 final judgments and more than 35 preliminary injunctions or emergency orders.
“We won’t be alarmed by another politically motivated lawsuit,” said Crofts-Pelayo, Newsom’s spokeswoman. “We will continue to advocate for laws that protect Californians and keep dangerous weapons off our streets.”
