California’s 5th District Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that firearm manufacturers have the right to present evidence arguing that the technology doesn’t currently exist to comply with a California law requiring “microstamping” technology in new models of semi-automatic handguns, the San Jose Mercury News reports.
Sending the case back to the lower court—which had earlier dismissed the suit—for further consideration, the appeals court in effect sided with firearm manufacturers.
In their lawsuit, manufacturers argued that California’s law—which requires new models of semi-automatic handguns to incorporate technology that marks every cartridge case in two places with the firearm’s make, model and serial number—is impossible to comply with.
The appeals court seemed to agree. As Justice Herbert Levy wrote for the court, “It would be illogical to uphold a requirement [of the California law] that is currently impossible to accomplish.”
