Lance Rankin here, FFL and gunsmith at Western Sport in Roanoke, Texas. Something unusual is happening in California: the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed a federal lawsuit against the state over its so-called Glock ban and its handgun roster. The federal government suing a state over gun control, arguing the state is violating its citizens’ Second Amendment rights, is not a sentence I expected to type. Here’s what’s going on, as of this writing.
What California actually restricts
California doesn’t just run background checks. It maintains a roster of “approved” handguns, and a pistol can’t be sold new in the state unless it’s on the list. Getting on the list means meeting a stack of requirements: loaded chamber indicators, magazine disconnects, and microstamping, a technology that has been more theory than product. The practical effect is that new handgun models almost never get approved, so Californians shop from a menu frozen years in the past.
The newer “Glock ban” went further, targeting semi-automatic pistols based on technical specs of the trigger mechanism. The result pulled some of the most popular handguns in America off California shelves. When I say popular, I mean it: the Glock 19 and 17 are probably the two most common defensive pistols in the country. I sell them week in, week out.
Inside the DOJ lawsuit against California’s Glock ban
The lawsuit leans on District of Columbia v. Heller, which held that the Second Amendment protects the right of law-abiding citizens to keep arms for self-defense, and specifically recognized handguns as the class of firearm Americans overwhelmingly choose for that purpose. The DOJ’s position is blunt: a state can’t use a regulatory maze to accomplish what an outright ban couldn’t. If the most commonly owned pistols in the nation can’t legally be sold to you, your right to acquire protected arms is being denied by paperwork instead of statute, and the outcome is the same.
Notably, the DOJ is framing California’s approach as a potential pattern of civil rights violations, not a one-off dispute over one model. That’s an escalation, and it signals the federal government intends to treat gun rights the way it treats other enumerated rights.
Why it matters outside California
California’s gun laws travel. Other states copy the roster concept and the feature mandates, so a DOJ lawsuit win against the Glock ban would echo well beyond the state line. The core question is one every gun owner should care about: can a state make it functionally impossible to buy commonly used firearms, so long as it never says the word “ban”? Courts answering no would change the playbook in a half-dozen states.
My take from behind the counter
Here in Texas I can sell a customer the current generation of any pistol they want, and the process is still thoroughly regulated: 4473, NICS check, the works. I explain the whole thing in how to buy a gun in Texas. Nothing about a handgun roster adds to that safety process; it just decides which safe, common guns you’re forbidden to choose.
The DOJ lawsuit over California’s Glock ban will grind through the courts for a while, and rulings get appealed, so check the current status before you rely on anything here, and talk to an attorney if California law affects you directly. I’ll keep following it, the same way I’ve tracked the suppressor rulings. If you’re in a free state and shopping for a pistol, the store is open, our pistol inventory is current, and I answer my own phone: 817-393-4000.
Lance Rankin is the owner and Chief Gunsmith of Western Sport, a family-run Type 07 FFL and Class 3/SOT dealer in Roanoke, Texas, serving shooters since 2007. Born and raised in Texas with over 50 years of experience handling firearms, Lance purchased Western Sport in 2017 and turned his lifelong passion into his profession. He specializes in AR-15 and AR-10 platform rifles, manufactures Western Sport’s own AR-15 line under the Rankin Industries brand, and runs the shop’s in-house Cerakote coating operation. When he’s not behind the counter or the workbench, you’ll find him on his ranch deep into the night, hunting coyotes with an AR-15 and thermal optics. Lance holds an MBA and personally shoots and tests the products Western Sport sells.
