The Ben Shapiro Show - June 24, 2026


California Just Banned the Most Popular Handgun in America


Episode Stats


Length

8 minutes

Words per minute

215.84

Word count

1,885

Sentence count

120

Harmful content

Toxicity

5

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

California has banned sales of Glock handguns and reclassified it as a machine gun. This is insane and I'm here to talk about it. The idea of gun control in California has been a gigantic failure all the way through.

Transcript

Transcripts from "The Ben Shapiro Show" are sourced from the Knowledge Fight Interactive Search Tool. Explore them interactively here.
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
00:00:00.000 California remains a governing nightmare.
00:00:02.000 Believe me, as a native Californian, I have experienced this firsthand and then I left because it was terrible.
00:00:06.000 Their latest, a gun ban that effectively gets rid of semi-automatic handguns.
00:00:11.000 I'll explain my own crazy experience with California's gun laws and why this ban is total insanity.
00:00:16.000 Let's get into it.
00:00:16.000 So California is now pushing another gigantic piece of gun control, according to the New York Post.
00:00:23.000 A new ban on Glock handguns has taken effect in California.
00:00:25.000 It starts July 1.
00:00:27.000 The law will remind Americans why California has become the ultimate legislative laboratory for aggressive gun control.
00:00:32.000 So, firearms dealers across the state of California will no longer be permitted to sell new Glock handguns or similar models that state lawmakers have aggressively reclassified as a form of machine gun.
00:00:42.000 Now, again, that's not a machine gun.
00:00:43.000 A machine gun is where you hold down the trigger and it's automatic, meaning that it just keeps firing until you let your finger off the trigger.
00:00:49.000 That is what a machine gun is.
00:00:51.000 A Glock handgun, which is just a semi automatic, meaning every time you pull the trigger, one bullet comes out, that is not a machine gun.
00:00:57.000 So, they have to go around the law in order to get here.
00:01:00.000 The justification behind this radical pivot Is these pistols can supposedly be modified easily with illegal aftermarket conversion devices that fundamentally alter their rate of fire? 1.00
00:01:10.000 Well, I mean, that's unbelievably stupid. 0.98
00:01:11.000 Again, you are now blaming Glock and the gun dealers for people doing illegal things with the guns. 1.00
00:01:17.000 You're saying that you can't sell a gun that is perfectly legal in its function because somebody might buy an aftermarket edition and make it illegal.
00:01:17.000 That's what you're doing.
00:01:26.000 That's like saying that you can't buy a car because it's possible that you might attach a bazooka to the front of your car.
00:01:31.000 I mean, it's theoretically you could, it's certainly possible to attach a bazooka to the front of your car.
00:01:35.000 But is that the fault of your local Ford dealer?
00:01:38.000 How exactly does that work?
00:01:40.000 If I go and I buy a bunch of knives, I buy a knife set, and then I decide that I'm going to attach that to a front of a bicycle, which would be illegal, are bicycles or knives banned or both?
00:01:52.000 And the idea of gun control in California has been a gigantic failure all the way through.
00:01:58.000 The state, again, is deciding to restrict future retail access to the Glock.
00:02:01.000 It is the most popular handgun in America.
00:02:06.000 Now, again, Vice President Kamala Harris, you'll recall in 2024, literally said she owned a Glock.
00:02:12.000 Now, if you already own one, you're grandfathered in.
00:02:15.000 I can't imagine that this withstands Second Amendment scrutiny under the Constitution.
00:02:19.000 Remember, the Supreme Court has decided that you do have Second Amendment rights that apply to you at the individual level, and that guns that are in common usage cannot be barred by the state.
00:02:29.000 Locks are in common usage, trying to reclassify it as a machine gun.
00:02:33.000 If you want to bar the part that makes it into a machine gun, theoretically you could do that, but that's not what they're doing.
00:02:37.000 Think about this for a second.
00:02:38.000 No matter where you grow up in America, there are certain things almost everybody recognizes.
00:02:42.000 Little League games on a Saturday afternoon, a family barbecue in the backyard, road trips, the cooler in the backseat, a high school football game under the lights, different states, different backgrounds, different traditions.
00:02:51.000 Some experiences are just part of American life.
00:02:53.000 And for generations, America's beverage companies have been right there in all of those moments.
00:02:58.000 The sodas, teas, sparkling water, sports drinks, other beverages that people have enjoyed for decades, they're not just products, they're part of countless family gatherings, celebrations, milestones, everyday moments.
00:03:06.000 Look back at your old family pictures.
00:03:07.000 You'll see them everywhere.
00:03:08.000 Behind those products are 275,000 hardworking men and women across all.
00:03:13.000 50 states.
00:03:14.000 People working in manufacturing, distribution, trucking, production, countless other roles that help keep local communities strong.
00:03:20.000 For more than a century, America's beverage companies have continued investing in American workers and American hometowns.
00:03:25.000 That's something worth appreciating.
00:03:27.000 Learn more about how they're keeping America strong at WeDeliverForAmerica.org.
00:03:31.000 Again, that's WeDeliverForAmerica.org.
00:03:34.000 America's beverage industries are doing an amazing job for America.
00:03:37.000 WeDeliverForAmerica.org.
00:03:39.000 Again, the deep and abiding desire to disarm gun owners who are legally Abiding by the restrictions of law, it's pretty incredible.
00:03:51.000 The vast majority of people who own Glocks in the United States are not using them for gun violence.
00:03:55.000 The vast majority of gun violence in the United States is being perpetrated by young males, many of whom are in gangs.
00:04:02.000 If you want to crack down on criminality, it turns out that the best way to do that is not to bar people like Kamala Harris from owning a Glock.
00:04:09.000 The best way to do it is to crack down on criminality and put criminals in jail for a long time.
00:04:14.000 But the same people who want to open up the jails, who say we should abolish prisons, those are the same exact people who go around saying that we need to ban guns for the law abiding, which is a little weird.
00:04:23.000 You want to abolish the prisons and let the criminals out.
00:04:26.000 And criminals definitionally do not care about the law, but you want law abiding citizens not to be able to obtain a weapon to protect themselves.
00:04:33.000 I don't know.
00:04:34.000 Seems a little bit backward.
00:04:35.000 But again, California is totally backward.
00:04:37.000 Gun regulations in California are insane.
00:04:40.000 I know this because I used to live in LA.
00:04:42.000 Brief story.
00:04:43.000 So when I was living in LA, I went to go see if I could get a CCW, a concealed carry permit, because, you know, I get a lot of death threats.
00:04:50.000 Like a lot of death threats.
00:04:51.000 And this was true when I was living in California too.
00:04:53.000 So I made an appointment with the LAPD.
00:04:55.000 You have to go in, you have to have an appointment with them.
00:04:57.000 And they said, bring the death threats.
00:04:58.000 So I brought a binder, yay thick, literally this thick, to show them all the death threats.
00:05:04.000 And they looked through it and they said, no, these don't count.
00:05:08.000 I said, why don't those count?
00:05:10.000 I said, well, because none of those people have tried to kill you yet.
00:05:12.000 I said, that's the whole point of having a gun. 0.89
00:05:13.000 What the hell are you talking about?
00:05:16.000 They said, well, has anyone tried to kill you? 0.99
00:05:17.000 I said, yes, actually, the FBI recently arrested somebody who was plotting to kill me.
00:05:21.000 It turns out was also plotting to kill Don Jr. and was arrested.
00:05:24.000 And that person went to jail.
00:05:26.000 So yeah, I might need a gun.
00:05:28.000 They said, well, no, no, no, you don't understand.
00:05:29.000 That person was arrested, so you don't need a gun.
00:05:31.000 That person's in jail already.
00:05:32.000 So I'm like, well, okay, so hold up a second.
00:05:34.000 If a person is arrested for wanting to kill me, I shouldn't have a gun because they're already in jail.
00:05:39.000 And if a person is not arrested for wanting to kill me, they're not enough of a threat for me to have a gun.
00:05:43.000 Is there any sort of hole here?
00:05:45.000 Like, is this just a full catch 22?
00:05:47.000 The answer is, it is a full catch 22, always and forever.
00:05:52.000 Again, the idea I hear from Democrats constantly is that if you're in favor of gun rights, then you don't have sympathy for people.
00:05:58.000 I don't know.
00:05:58.000 I have sympathy for a lot of law abiding people who have to fend off the criminals that the left is trying to release.
00:06:05.000 And when it comes to the possibility of a government that is going to encroach on your fundamental rights, which originally was the reason for the Second Amendment, the idea being that you might need to resist encroachments upon your rights, I don't know, does that feel like a very distant possibility now, or does it feel more and more real?
00:06:26.000 Hard to make the case at this point that America is a place where protection of rights is fundamentally safe.
00:06:32.000 Now, again, the Supreme Court has ruled on this, and I cannot imagine that this law is going to withstand basic scrutiny.
00:06:38.000 The Supreme Court said that the Second Amendment does, in fact, apply to people at every level of government.
00:06:44.000 In the same way, the First Amendment applies to you, the Second Amendment applies to you.
00:06:48.000 What kinds of guns can they ban?
00:06:49.000 Well, they're not supposed to be banning guns that are in common use.
00:06:53.000 Well, the Glock is not only in common use, it is probably the most common handgun sold in America at this time.
00:06:58.000 It's highly reliable.
00:07:00.000 The entire framework that's being designed here is meant to ban all guns because obviously you could use the same exact logic with regard to a rifle.
00:07:07.000 There are aftermarket additions that you can add to pretty much any rifle that, quote unquote, turn it into a machine gun.
00:07:14.000 This is what they call bump stocks, right?
00:07:15.000 Bump stocks are a way for you to essentially hold down the trigger and fire repeatedly.
00:07:20.000 And the idea is that this turns it into a machine gun.
00:07:22.000 Bump stocks have been banned in a wide variety of states.
00:07:25.000 But again, if the idea is that you can ban the underlying gun because you can aftermarket fix it so that it works illegally, that's true about everything.
00:07:32.000 I mean, virtually every product that you use in your household is regulated in particular ways in terms of its production and liability.
00:07:39.000 But it's only guns they're trying to apply this logic to.
00:07:42.000 Again, I do not think that this survives scrutiny at the level of the Supreme Court.
00:07:45.000 That's not what this is about.
00:07:47.000 It's about sending a message.
00:07:48.000 And the message is that if you want to own a gun, you should live in California.
00:07:51.000 As always, legislation accomplishes a couple things.
00:07:54.000 One, the actual purpose of the legislation.
00:07:56.000 And then, second, the sort of messaging purpose of the legislation.
00:07:59.000 The reason that California is taking on Glock is because it's trying to make it non profitable for Glock to even distribute in California at all.
00:08:07.000 If they ban their handguns, then Glock presumably says, we're not going to jump through the hoops that California forces us to jump through, and they just stop moving their guns through California at all, even federally licensed firearms dealers.
00:08:18.000 So, understand the actual game that's being played here has nothing to do with lowering crime in California.
00:08:23.000 Again, California is a state that routinely reclassifies crimes they don't count as crimes.
00:08:28.000 This is simply about anti gun animus.
00:08:31.000 And really, in the end, the people that hurt the most are the people who abide by the law.
00:08:35.000 What an amazing video you just watched.
00:08:36.000 Wasn't that amazing?
00:08:38.000 Well, you know, if you think so, head on over to dailywire.comslash subscribe to watch the full show ad free or check out this crazy story here.