WASHINGTON, July 2 -- The United States Justice Department sued California on Wednesday to halt a newly enacted law banning retail sales of Glock and Glock-style handguns, the most popular pistols sold in the state, and simultaneously challenged a decades-old list that severely restricts which handguns may be legally purchased there.

The 17-page complaint, filed in federal district court in Los Angeles, argues that both restrictions violate the Second Amendment. The lawsuit escalates a months-long standoff between the Trump administration and California's Democratic leadership over some of the nation's most ambitious gun control measures.

"The Second Amendment is a sacred right belonging to all Americans, even those in California," Acti...