DOJ DEMANDS RECALL AND RETROFIT OF OVER 4300 HANDGUNS AFTER TWO YEARS OF SALES WITH DOJ BLESSING SMALL CALIBER WALTHER P-22 TARGET PISTOL CLASSIFIED AS "ASSAULT WEAPON"In late April, the California Department of Justice Firearms Division (DOJ) sent out 4320 disturbing letters demanding that buyers of the Smith & Wesson/Walther P-22 handgun, a .22 caliber target pistol, send the guns back to Smith & Wesson within 45 days for a retrofit or face criminal prosecution.
A DOJ Firearms Division agent contends these target handguns are "assault weapons" because they have a threaded barrel part used to assemble the firearm that could also potentially be used to accommodate a silencer or flash suppressor.
Before a handgun can be sold in California it must be tested, certified as "safe" and licensed by DOJ. DOJ tested and certified the P-22 handguns as "safe" for sale, and approved them to be sold for two years before acting. DOJ became aware of the issue in July of 2002, soon after the Model P22 was tested and certified safe by DOJ, and listed by DOJ for sale in California. Though the firearm could have been removed from the DOJs certified safe for sale list at that time, the DOJ allowed the firearm to continue to be listed and sold for nearly two years after the feature that they contend brought the pistol under the "assault weapon" act was discovered. Every time one of these 4300 guns were sold, the sale was approved by DOJ.
Despite the DOJs allowing the firearms to be sold in California for nearly two years after discovering the threaded barrel, the DOJ has forced the manufacturer and purchasers to bear of the burden of modifying the firearm. DOJ did not seek immunity legislation for buyers (as has been done in previous similar situations), and it precluded the purchasers from registering the firearms as an "assault weapon," as DOJ had originally planned. (Since the P-22 is a handgun, it was registered with the state when purchased anyway, as all handguns purchased in California are.) Instead, DOJ threatened Smith & Wesson with an $11 million dollar Unfair Business Practice Act lawsuit if the company did not initiate this recall.
http://www.crpa.org/showpages.asp?pid=1139*FW Note:It wasn't...and then it was...
There comes a point before the fall of every civilization where the laws are so numerous and confusing that it is impossible not to break a law or to understand exactly what law has been broken.
People are turned into criminals at the stroke of a bureaucrat's pen, without so much as a clue, or the intent, that any sort of wrong has been done.
At this point, people lose respect for the law and the people who enforce it, and anarchy erupts.
California is just a step away from lighting that fuse...
:shock:
