The state of California approved a single model of Glock pistol, according to a legal filing in federal court as a Justice Department lawsuit is pending.
After Democratic California Attorney General Rob Bonta refused to discuss a possible settlement with Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon, the 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. In the Tuesday night notice provided to United States District Judge Monica Ramirez Almadani of the Central District of California, a Biden appointee, California said it had approved a version of the Glock 43.
“The California Department of Justice’s webpage listing for the new Glock semiautomatic pistol model, Glock 43X CA, on the Handgun Roster, which does not have a plus symbol next to the model name, indicating that it does not fall within the definition of a machinegun-convertible pistol under California Penal Code section 16885 and thus is not subject to the prohibition on the sale, transfer, or delivery of machinegun-convertible pistols by firearms dealers,” the filing claimed.
The Clock 43 is a semiautomatic pistol chambered for the 9x19mm NATO round, according to Glock’s website. It holds six rounds in its magazine and weighs just under 21 ounces when a loaded magazine is inserted.
Some pro-Second Amendment advocates suspected that the state was trying to render the DOJ case “moot” with the approval. An attorney representing Glock did not respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
“Pretty strong evidence that their approval may have been motivated by trying to moot this lawsuit. From what I heard, Judge Almadani had some surprisingly tough questions for CADOJ (not that that necessarily means she’d rule against them),” Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) Director of Legal Research and Education Konstadinos Moros posted on X.
“The big question still remaining is whether all redesigned Glocks will sail through, or if CADOJ is treating the slimline Glocks differently than the regular ones,” Moros continued. “The slimlines never had the same prevalence of illegal switches. The law isn’t written for that to matter, but who knows if CADOJ thinks it matters.”
Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB1127 into law in October 2025, enacting the first state law to ban Glocks by labeling them as “machine gun convertible pistols.” According to current federal law, the possession or manufacture of fully-automatic firearms is prohibited unless the firearm is registered or approved by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) pursuant to the provisions of the National Firearms Act of 1934.
The National Shooting Sports Foundation’s RightSideofLegal.org website notes that having a machine-gun conversion device can lead to ten years in federal prison and up to a $250,000 in fines.
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