Describing the state's wacky new ban on Glock and Glock-like pistols as "flagrantly unconstitutional," gun rights groups filed a federal lawsuit against the state of California on Monday.
The legal challenge, Jaymes v. Bonta, was brought by the Firearms Policy Coalition, the National Rifle Association, the Second Amendment Foundation, a licensed firearms retailer, and two individuals, against California Attorney General Rob Bonta in his official capacity.
The suit takes aim at AB 1127, which was passed by the Democrat-controlled state legislature and signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Oct. 10. The new law, which becomes effective in July 2026 as California Penal Code § 27595(a), bans the sale or transfer of semi-automatic Glock and Glock-style handguns with cruciform trigger bars under the pretext that they can be illegally converted to full-auto machine pistols.
The groups challenge the ban on the contention that semiautomatic handguns with cruciform trigger bars are not different from any other type of semiautomatic handgun in a constitutionally relevant way, and that Glocks and Glock clones are among the most popular designs in modern firearms history, with millions in circulation since the 1980s.
"That is flagrantly unconstitutional," says the 10-page lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California this week. "These handguns are in common use; indeed, they are among the most popular firearms in the nation," the filing explains. If the law takes effect, Californians "will have no practical way to acquire them."
The suit seeks to have the new law declared unconstitutional under the Second Amendment and the state enjoined from enforcing it.
"The Constitution does not allow elitist politicians to decide which constitutionally protected guns the people may own, and California doesn’t get to tell people that their rights end where Governor Newsom’s tyrannical, anti-Second Amendment politics begin," FPC President Brandon Combs told Guns.com via email. "Every American has a right to choose the tools they trust to defend their lives and liberty. We look forward to ending this insanely unconstitutional scheme just as we have many others."
The case builds on a second lawsuit already before the courts, Renna v. Bonta, challenging California's state-approved handgun roster, which, in effect, bans the sale of new semi-auto pistol designs over stalled microstamping technology.
"Prior to AB 1127, Gen 3 Glock, and similar handguns built on the Glock platform, were available for commercial sale because they were grandfathered onto California’s handgun roster,” said SAF Director of Legal Operations Bill Sack in an email to Guns.com. "California is already subject to an injunction because the California Handgun Roster unconstitutionally bans handguns in common use for lawful purposes. Rather than heed the demands of the Second Amendment and their own courts, California lawmakers have responded by doubling down and expanding their handgun ban. We’ll see them in court."
Banner image: A G47, a fifth-generation Glock that is not on California's roster of "safe" handguns but is nonetheless the primary sidearm of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the largest federal law enforcement agency inside the Department of Homeland Security. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)
