Legal/Law/Criminal Justice and Reform

California Almost Completely Ignores Recent SCOTUS 2A Ruling While Defending Glock Ban From DOJ Suit

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Democratic California Attorney General Rob Bonta appeared to brush off the Supreme Court’s ruling in Wolford v. Lopez while defending the state’s ban on Glock pistols.

After Bonta refused to discuss a possible settlement with Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon, the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed suit in federal court to invalidate the measure and California’s “Unsafe Handgun Act,” seeking a temporary restraining order against the Glock ban, which Bonta opposed in a July 2 court filing. In that filing, Bonta mentioned the high court’s June 25 ruling only once in passing, while not addressing the major points of the opinion written by Associate Justice Samuel Alito.

“AB 1127 was a reasonable legislative response to the growing spread of, and increasing accessibility to, what California law calls a ‘pistol converter,’ and what the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (U.S. ATF) calls ‘machinegun conversion devices’ or ‘MCDs,’” Bonta’s office argued before the United States District Judge Anne Hwang of the United States District Court for the Central District of California, a Biden appointee.

In the 2024 election, facing criticism for her prior opposition to the Second Amendment, Kamala Harris stated in an interview with Oprah Winfrey that she owns a gun for home defense in her California home. Specifically, like hundreds of thousands or millions of other… https://t.co/sLoViVmb9k

— Kostas Moros (@MorosKostas) July 3, 2026

“A semiautomatic pistol that can be readily converted into a machinegun with a 3-D printed pistol converter is thus a ‘distinctively modern’ problem,” Bonta’s office argued near the end of their filing, citing the Wolford decision and quoting its discussion of a previous Second Amendment case heard by the Supreme Court.

California was the first state to enact a ban on the popular semi-automatic pistols when Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB1127 into law in October 2025.

“Bonta’s opposition papers prove one thing: the various hardware bans of California and the other handful of antigun states are on borrowed time. The brief bends over backwards to not cite the Supreme Court’s new Wolford ruling on the question of what an ‘arm’ is, because it makes clear that its arguments are untenable,” Second Amendment Foundation Director of Legal Research and Education Konstadinos Moros told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “While Bonta argues a Glock is not even an arm, the Supreme Court just explained that an arm is ‘any weapon customarily used for offensive or defensive purposes.’” 

“We hope the court will rule accordingly, and issue the requested temporary restraining order against the Glock sales ban,” Moros continued.

More than 23 million Glock pistols have been sold worldwide and it has been a popular selection among both civilian and law enforcement users in the United States, according to Handguns magazine.

“California politicians will stop at nothing to make it as difficult and expensive as possible to restrict the right to access popular modern firearms like the Glock, which even Kamala Harris claims she chose for her home defense firearm,” California Rifle and Pistol Association President C.D. Michel told the DCNF.

“Converting any firearm into a fully automatic firearm is already illegal, and so is possession of parts that can be used for that purpose,” Michel continued. “California law already prohibits access to the latest and safest firearm designs, depriving citizens of the ability to choose a handgun that is best suited for their individual circumstances. CRPA applauds the federal government’s efforts.”

Bonta did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the DCNF.