California: New Anti-Gun Laws Take Effect Today, January 1
Signed into law in 2011, but taking effect today are a number of laws surrounding long gun registration.
• A person living in California will not need to register their currently owned firearms. However, starting today, whenever a long gun is transferred through a dealer it will automatically be registered to the receiving individual (PC 11106 and 28160).
• For transactions that do not require a dealer, as of today, the recipient of the long gun will need to register the long gun with the California Department of Justice (see generally PC 27860-28000).
• Individuals moving into California as of today will need to register their long guns (in addition to handguns) soon after moving into the state (PC 27560).
• The exception for the dealer requirement for transfers of curio or relic long guns older than fifty years will end today unless the recipient has a California Certificate of Eligibility and a Federal Curio or Relics license; the recipient will still need to register the long gun with the California Department of Justice. (PC 27965 and 27966).
Signed into law in 2012 and taking effect today, one fee will be charged for any number of firearms in a single transaction (PC 28240).
As for laws taking effect today for bills that were signed into law this year:
• Penal Code section 32310 and 32311: In addition to the current restrictions on manufacturing, importing, selling, giving and lending large capacity magazines, the law now prohibits buying and receiving to the list of prohibited activities. Additionally, the law now prohibits a person from manufacturing, importing, selling, giving, lending, buying or receiving “large capacity magazine conversion kits.” A “large capacity magazine conversion kit” is a device or combination of parts of a fully functioning large-capacity magazine, including, but not limited to, the body, spring, follower, and floor plate or end plate, capable of converting an ammunition feeding device into a large-capacity magazine. Possession of large capacity magazines and large capacity magazine conversion kits are still not illegal.
• Penal Code section 25100: With certain exceptions, if you keep a loaded firearm in your residence, and a person prohibited from possessing firearms gains access to the firearm and that person hurts him or herself, someone else or carries the firearm into a public place, you can be prosecuted. In addition, you can commit “criminal storage in the third degree” if you keep a loaded firearm within any premises where you know or should know a child is likely to gain access to the firearm.
• Penal Code section 25135: If you live with someone and you know or have reason to know the other person is prohibited from possessing, receiving, owning or purchasing a firearm, you must keep the firearm locked up (with a gun safety device or in a locked container) or keep it on your person or in close proximity.
• Penal Code section 28220: If the California Department of Justice cannot determine whether a person is prohibited from owning or possessing firearms as a result of a criminal case, mental health commitment, or has attempted to purchase a handgun within the last thirty days, the DOJ can only delay the transaction for up to thirty days while it tries to figure out whether the person is prohibited from possessing or receiving firearms. After thirty days the licensed dealer may release the firearm but is not required to do so.
• Penal Code sections 28210 and 28215: A dealer is required to provide a copy of the Dealer’s Record of Sale (DROS) to the firearm purchaser.
• Penal Code sections 29810, 29825, 29830, 33870: When a person is prohibited from owning and possessing firearms by a court order with a specified date of termination, that person has the option to store their firearms with a licensed firearm dealer.
• Health and Safety Code sections 8100 and 8105: Those who communicate serious threats of physical violence against an identifiable victim to a psychotherapist are prohibited from owning and possessing firearms for five years. The psychotherapist is required to report the threat to law enforcement within 24 hours. A person prohibited this way may petition for the restoration of their firearm rights.
• Welfare and Institutions Code section 8102: When firearms are seized at the scene of a mental health disturbance, a prohibited person can elect to have their firearms transferred or sold to a licensed firearm dealer.
• Fish and Game Code section 4155: It is unlawful to trap any bobcat, or attempt to do so, or to sell or export any bobcat or part of any bobcat taken in the area surrounding Joshua Tree National Park.
The NRA has numerous legal challenges currently pending, and more are planned, including potential challenges to some of these new laws. If you would like to assist in our fight against this attack on gun owners’ rights in California, please donate to the NRA Legal Action Project here. Rest assured that your donation will be used for the benefit of Californians. For a summary of the many actions the NRA legal team has taken or is currently taking on behalf of California gun owners, click here.
If you need help deciphering California’s gun laws, you might find the
“California Gun Laws: A guide to state and federal firearm regulations” by C.D. Michel helpful. While the vast majority of information in this book is timely and is currently applicable, and although the majority of California’s firearms laws do not change year to year, we are aware that to some degree California firearms law changes annually, and that federal firearms law changes occasionally. To address these changes, and to cover other more specialized firearms law topics that are not covered in this book due to narrow public interest and space limitations, the author makes legal updates and supplemental legal memoranda available to address forthcoming or applicable changes in the law on the website that supplements this book:www.CalGunLaws.com.
