Poway gun retailer joins lawsuit to sue CA over ban of glock-style guns

SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) -- Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 1127 into law, banning the sale of guns that can “readily converted by hand or with common household tools” into a machine gun.

Glocks and glock-style guns fall into this category, which is one of the most popular handguns in the nation.

After the governor's signature, the NRA, Firearms Policy Coalition, and Second Amendment Foundation along with local plaintiffs, including Poway Weapons and Gear, its president and general manager filed a lawsuit challenging the ban in San Diego federal court.

“The argument being that its too easy to turn them into illegal machine guns and therefore the guns themselves in their semi-automatic form need to be banned, and that’s what he did, and he did so unconstitutionally and that’s what our lawsuits for," Bill Sack, the director of legal operations at the Second Amendment Foundation said. “They are widely adopted by military, police and civilians all over the country and because they are in lawful use they cannot be outright banned.”

San Diego County Gun Owners PAC Executive Director Michael Schwartz said glocks are one of the most popular styles of guns nationwide, and a popular tool for self defense.

According to the PAC, "The ATF reports that over 8% of pistols sold in the U.S. are manufactured by Glock.  A survey by PubMed Central reports that over 23% of gun owners own at least one Glock.  AB1127 redefines standard semi-automatic Glock pistols (and other similar pistols) as “machine guns” under a new and vague criteria"

But those who want more gun regulations, such as the group, San Diegans for Gun Violence Prevention, are happy the governor signed it.

“It's always a second amendment argument right that’s usually the case that’s being made its like a blanket catch all for anything to do with guns, the second amendment was never intended to be a blank check that allowed unregulated use of guns," Ron Marcus, VP of Communications with San Diegans for Gun Violence Prevention said.

“Overwhelmingly firearms are used lawfully and the very small portion of people who use them to commit horrible heinous crimes are not the people who are going to follow a glock ban," Sack added.

Attorney General Rob Bonta's press office said in an email Wednesday, "The California Department of Justice will continue to defend California's commonsense gun laws. Beyond that we will respond as appropriate in court."

The ban would begin to go into effect on Jan. 1, and all sales would stop by July 1, 2026, as written in the lawsuit, "Effective July 1, 2026, licensed firearms dealers “shall not sell, offer for sale, exchange, give, transfer, or deliver any semiautomatic machinegun-convertible pistol," the lawsuit read.