California, Massachusetts, and New York have criteria that a handgun must pass to be sold in that state.  Currently this means: (1) in New York, a fired case from each pistol is provided to the NYS DOJ for its data base prior to sale of the pistol in that state.  The intent being to trace the gun's cartridge case if found a t crime scene -- dubious worth and has, so far as know, not been useful in solving one crime.  The other is a mechanical lock that its part of the gun's operating mechanism.  This lock (turned with a special key) prevents the gun from firing at all.  This is not a trigger lock or a safety cable -- this lock is built into the firearm itself.  All of this was before the latest batch of stupidity signed by Gov. Arnold in California that mandates microstamping of the firing pin on guns sold there.  The idea is that the firing pins will microstamp their data on the primers of fired cartridge cases to identify guns used in crime.  Yeah, until you remove the stamping with a needle file or swap out firing pins.  What idiots!