California Assembly Bill 1471 passed both the House and the Senate and is expected to be forwarded to Governor Arnold at any time. The bill would, "expand the definition of 'unsafe handgun' to include semiautomatic pistols that are not designed and equipped with a microscopic array of characters that identify the make, model, and serial number of the pistol, etched in 2 or more places on the interior surface or internal working parts of the pistol, and that are transferred by imprinting on each cartridge case when the firearm is fired."

In fact, the real purpose of requiring a microstamping technology on semi-automatic handguns is to make the manufacture and distribution of such firearms impossible in the State of California. The net effect is to ban handguns without actually banning them.

The California legislature has chosen to hide behind the guise of "safety" to justify this bill. Somehow, without a microstamp, a semi-automatic handgun is deemed "unsafe." And yet, millions of semi-automatic handguns have operated perfectly around the world, without a microstamp, for nearly 100 years.

Apparently, there is some sort of magical force-field in California that will cause handguns to malfunction without the microstamping. Luckily, this magical force-field won't go into effect until January 1, 2010. It is unclear how semi-automatic handguns manufactured prior to 2010 will continue to function properly without the protection of the microstamp. Further research is needed.

Whether or not "The People's Governor" Schwarzenegger will veto this bill remains to be seen and will depend heavily on whether or not Californians exhibit any meaningful opposition to this bill. California residents can call the Governor at 916-445-2841.

Jennifer Freeman is Executive Director and co-founder of Liberty Belles, a grass-roots organization dedicated to restoring and preserving the Second Amendment.
http://www.libertybelles.org
jennifer@libertybelles.org