[jyl]

What's wrong w/ a drop test for a firearm?

We establish certain minimum safety requirements for cars, motorcycles, airplanes, cellphones, etc - why not firearms?

Any quality firearm should pass a drop test. Any reputable manufacturer would not want to sell a firearm that didn't. And its not just cheap "Saturday Night Specials" that should be tested. E.g. Ruger, a high-quality manufacturer, has recalled some of their new SR-9 for this reason.

My beef w/ the California regulation is that, IIRC, each model of firearm must be re-certified every so many years, even if there have been no design changes. Some manufacturers don't bother to re-certify their older, discontinued models. This effectively reduces the supply of those older guns on the used market (since after a model drops off the certified list, those guns cannot be imported for sale into Calif). This tends to make the consumer purchase new guns. You can see why a manufacturer might like that . . .