The head of the Los Angeles Police Department says the department “overwhelmed” by the number of rioters who’ve been setting fires, blocking traffic, destroying police cars, and generally causing mayhem and chaos in parts of the city. While California Gov. Gavin Newsom has been impotently tweeting out statements that “those who assault law enforcement or cause property damage will risk arrest,” and blaming Donald Trump for the destruction, lawmakers in Sacramento may use the riots as justification to enact a ban on one of the most popular pistols in the country.
Last week the state Assembly approved a bill that would outlaw guns that can be “easily converted by hand or with common household tools” into an machine gun; legislation aimed directly at Glock handguns, which can be illegally modified to shoot full auto through the use of a cheap plastic switch available from a host of online sources based mainly in China, or produced domestically on a 3D printer.
AB 1127 is supported by organizations like Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund, and Voices for Progress. However, other groups such as the National Association for Gun Rights and Gun Owners of California Inc. are in opposition.
“AB 1127 is a blatant attack on your right to own one of the most common self-defense firearms in America,” Gun Owners of California said on social media before the bill passed through the Assembly. “This bill targets semiautomatic pistols used by millions of law-abiding gun owners—and it’s being pushed under the false pretense of ‘safety’.”
NAGR vowed to fight back against the proposed legislation.
“California (is) pushing rapidly towards a total ban of Glock pistols,” NAGR said on social media. “The most popular firearm in the country. If you think there is a line they will not cross, think again.”
AB 1127 already stood a good chance of passing in the state Senate as well, but with the L.A. riots exploding over the weekend, anti-gun legislators are almost certain to try to capitalize on the chaos and move swiftly to enact the ban under the guise of public safety.
As awful as AB 1127 is at the moment, it could also get even worse if senators amend the bill. Currently, the bill prohibits the sale of any “semiautomatic pistol with a cruciform trigger bar that can be readily converted by hand or with common household tools into a machinegun by the installation or attachment of a pistol converter”, but doesn’t say anything about the possession of those firearms. As we’ve seen with the state’s ban on “large capacity” magazines, however, the legislature has no problem going back and removing any grandfather clauses; turning lawful magazine owners into criminals if they don’t had over their “large capacity” magazines to law enforcement, permanently modify them to accept no more than ten rounds, or removing them from the state.
Could lawmakers try to do the same with their proposed ban on Glocks? Absolutely. If rioters escalate the violence toward local, state, and federal law enforcement agents, I wouldn’t be shocked to hear some lawmakers demand the bill be modified to prohibit simple possession of Glock handguns as well.
Even in its current form AB 1127 is sure to face a court challenge if it’s enacted into law, so why wouldn’t anti-gunners in Sacramento expand the scope of the bill and make it illegal to keep a Glock going forward? Political expediency is the only thing keeping them in check, and the riots may be all the justification they need to criminalize the possession of some of the most popular pistols in the country… especially if the chaos in L.A. leads to a spike in gun sales in the Golden State in the coming days.
We’ll be keeping a close eye on AB 1127 now that’s in the Senate, but California gun owners need to be aware of this looming threat. The bill is already a huge infringement on our Second Amendment rights by outlawing sales of an arm that is clearly in common use for lawful purposes, and it could get much, much worse in the very near future.
Editor’s Note: If the anti-gun left is hoping to use a repeat of the “Summer of Love” to fuel their attacks on our Second Amendment rights, the Trump administration has a number of ways to respond.
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