Ah, threading as opposed to rifling. I suppose the ban make a little more sence, but if I really wanted to, couldn’t I thread the business end of a barrel myself?
If you were a moderately skilled machinist with the proper tools, I bet you could do it.
I have no idea how hard it would be to thread a barrel.
I do know that my Ruger does not have a threaded barrel, but it’d take me a few seconds to change the barrel that is in it to one that wouldn’t leave the same markings on the bullet as mine.
It’s outrageous because:
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California is damaging law-abiding American’s firearms for absolutely no reason.
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California is abusing its firearms registry.
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This will not, in any way, prevent crime.
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This is the sort of behavior that all of us “gun-nuts” have been worried about.
They’re worried about sound suppressors? Well, they’re already illegal in California; you can’t even get one through a class 3 transfer in that state, to my knowledge. Sound suppressors are much more difficult to obtain than a pistol with a threaded barrel, anyway.
I just hope that no one tells those assholes in California that you can attach a “silencer” to Ruger Mk II or a Browning Buckmark without threading the barrel.
From what the Smith and Wesson representative I spoke to on the phone said, catsix may be right. The production threading on the barrel is for changing barrels, and not for a sound suppressor. I am unsure as to which end the threading is actually on, however, as I do not personally own one of these pistols.
I imagine that the way California law is written no sort of threading is allowed on the barrel, no matter what its intended purpose is.
I think there are threads on the muzzle end. Ostensibly to accomodate a barrel counterweight (or compensator) for the target model. See this picture:
http://www.waltheramerica.com/images/WAP22005.jpg
And this one:
http://www.thehighroad.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=14429
There also a discussion at that message board (thehighroad.org) on this topic. At least two of the participants claim to have received the letter from Randy Rossi reproduced in the OP here.
I think it is a good law that will clearly keep dangerous folks from silently assaulting folks. You don’t want to violate a gun statute when you are a-murderin’.
But they have a reason. The firearms in question are now illegal in California.
How? They’re using it to contact the owners, and giving them a solution to the problem of owning an illegal firearm. If they were using it to round up the gun owners and toss them in jail, I’d agree with you.
You can’t prove that. To be fair, neither can anyone prove that it willprevent crime. And actually, it will at least prevent one crime - the act of owning this illegal gun in the state of California. 
And for very little rational reason, as far as I can tell.
Y’know, those of us who sit in the middle on the gun debates look at the frenzy and fulmination coming from the extremes and think, “A pox on both your houses”. I mean, here I am, trying to be reasonable, and find some solid, reliable knowledge on what this is all about, and I get yelled at.
The National Rifle Association of America
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[speaking as a guy who is in favor of gun registration when it is handled sanely]
Internal threads on the business end of a 3-1/2" barrel would be pretty silly for many reasons. Adding a barrel extension instead of simply replacing the barrel is also silly and either method would reduce accuracy. As neither Wather nor S&W have been particularly silly or interested in reducing the accuracy of their products in the past I assume that the barrel threads onto or into the receiver which means the threads have NOTHING to do with installing a silencer and the bozo who is complaining about this is completely unfamiliar with the products he’s supposed to regulate.
I see an appeal in the future where he gets laughed out of court.
Its also chambered for .22LR.
They make very little noise to start with at least compared to larger centerfire handguns.
Any stats about on what percentage of murders actually involve silenced handguns? Sounds like some more feelgood legislation to me.
Yeah, they would. But the threads are external. Look at the picture I linked.
Why? What do you hope to accomplish by having law-abiding owners give a list of their legally purchased and held items to the authorities?
I think he meant that there is no logical or productive reason to have made these firearms illegal in California.
And the penalty for not wanting your firearm’s investment value to be destroyed when you purchased it legally as it was is what, exactly?
Which wasn’t illegal until this piece of legislation made it so and thus created criminals out of law abiding citizens.
It’s not rational to dislike and distrust firearms laws that are based upon what appears to be no logic and which seek to ‘solve’ a nonexistant problem?
It’s a groundswell!
OK, I can see that. That’s a different debate. At least I think it is: I thought the OP was about California abusing the registry by sending out these letters.
But laws are passed all the time which make things illegal which were formerly legal. Imagine how much the value of Timothy Leary’s LSD collection must have dropped.
Yes, it is rational. There are laws I dislike and distrust for just those reasons. But, to me at least, pending greater knowledge, there is logic in this one. A stalwart resistance against any restraints or restrictions whatsoever is not, in my mind, rational. And to be fair, complete regulation of firearms is not a rational approach either. There’s a middle ground there somewhere.
I notice in preview that catsix hit the nail on the head. I would, however, like to elaborate on this question:
They’re misusing the registry in that they’re using it to take something away from the people of California that had previously been their right. If we ever see a complete ban on firearms in this country, the government (be it federal, or each individual state acting separately) will do it in a similar manner. A law will be passed, the registry will be checked and letters sent out saying that the government will either a) buy our firearms or b) confiscate them. This really is a slippery slope; it’s very frustrating that so many people refuse to see that.
This Year’s Model, if you don’t mind my asking, how does what Lockyer is doing to Walther P22 owners make the citizens of California any safer?
And, for the record, I apologize if you thought I was yelling at you. That was not my intent.
I think they’re abusing the registry by using it to create thousands of new criminals so that they can say they did some feel-good bullshit.
I’m not exactly in favor of laws that make drugs illegal.
I fully support NICS and Project Exile.
I’d write a terse letter in reply, using the phrase “cold dead fingers” a lot.
I’ve seen a lot of idiot drive-bys from you, and I have news: you’re rarely very funny. Care to contribute anything for once?
There was an editorial in my local paper today, urging the Ohio Legislature to allow municipalities to ban legal carriers of concealed weapons from public parks.
I will feel much safer when I know that gun-crazed, firearm-totin’ concealed carriers can no longer infiltrate our green spaces, searching out unleashed dogs, frisbee throwers and stray toddlers to take deadly aim at.
It could happen.
But when I am funny, it’s gold, baby!