California has over 6 million gunowners, and it seems like almost all of them are confused. The state’s gun laws have been some of the strictest in the nation for years, but new bills have managed to make its laws even harsher and more complicated.
Add pending court challenges, shifting deadlines and misinformation, and the state is left with gun owners who are unsure about everything from where they can purchase ammunition, whether ownership of high-capacity magazines is legal or illegal, and what’s classified as an assault weapon — all of which leads to slumping gun sales. Here are the changes California gun owners will need to know about.
Ammunition
Having already placed all kinds of restrictions on firearms, Democrat lawmakers in California decided to go a step further and start restricting ammunition sales.
The first change kicks in on January 1, 2018, when it becomes illegal to pick up ammo from anyone other than a licensed firearms dealer. If you want to order ammo online, you need to have it shipped to a dealer, and then pick it up at their store. Of course, that dealer will charge you a processing fee.
In July 2019, you’ll need to pass a background check to purchase ammo, just like you would when you buy a gun. And who foots the bill for this? You do, of course, in the form of a $1 state fee.
High-Capacity Magazines
Before I get into the new law here, I want to mention that what California calls “high-capacity magazines” are really standard-capacity magazines. If a handgun is designed to carry 15 rounds, that’s the standard capacity for it. Calling anything above 10 rounds “high capacity” is just another way the Democrats try to inspire fear in people.
Unfortunately, California’s gun laws say otherwise. The state had already banned purchasing or manufacturing magazines that can hold more than 10 rounds, but it didn’t ban possession. This essentially grandfathered in magazines that people already owned prior to the ban.
The state then banned possession of those magazines, and that new law was supposed to kick in July 2017. Guns rights groups have protested this ban in court, though, and a judge stopped the ban from going into effect. Until the cases play out, possession of these magazines is still allowed, but that could change in the future.
Assault Weapons
This is the most talked-about of the new California restrictions, and for good reason. California already had a long list of features that turned a gun from a rifle into a dreaded “assault weapon,” another of those scary terms Democrats love to use. One such feature was a detachable magazine, meaning any magazine you could detach without using a tool. That led to the creation of the bullet button, which required using a tool, such as the tip of a bullet, to release your magazine.
Bullet button AR-15s became extremely popular in California. Then, the 2015 San Bernardino shooting occurred. Even though the shooters there illegally removed the bullet buttons from their AR-15s, California lawmakers somehow decided that bullet buttons weren’t enough and classified bullet button AR-15s as assault weapons, too.
So, what are your options? Since the start of 2017, it has been illegal to buy or build a bullet button AR-15. If you want an AR-15, the only way to get one is to buy or build one that doesn’t have any of those “assault weapon” features. As you’d expect, there is already a growing market for featureless AR-15 rifles and accessories in California.
If you already have a bullet button AR-15, California expects you to register it with the state Department of Justice (DOJ). The original deadline to register was by the end of 2017, but after an extension, it’s now June 30, 2018. That extension was likely because the California DOJ’s online registration system wasn’t even ready until August of 2017.
Gun Laws Are Only Getting Worse in California
Despite the fact that gun homicides in California went up this year even with its ridiculous gun laws, the state is set on further restricting its citizens and depriving them of their Second Amendment rights.
And just look at the results – law-abiding citizens need to spend their time combing forums and constantly checking the news to see what’s legal and what isn’t, and spend more of their money on redundant background checks every time they want to buy bullets online from popular ammo retailers.
Something tells me criminals haven’t bothered to read up on the new gun laws.
The high-capacity magazine and assault weapon laws, in particular, provide a chilling look at how the state gradually restricts its citizens more and more.
First, it banned anyone from buying or manufacturing magazines over 10 rounds but grandfathered in existing magazines to avoid taking too much, too soon. Now they’re trying to criminalize possession of those magazines.
What’s more, it’s nearly impossible for gun owners (or would be gun owners) to secure financing for new firearms. A bill passed in 2016 required the loan for a firearm to be conducted through a licensed firearms dealer. A violation of this provision is a crime, and will negatively affect your credit score. And like negative debits, the statute of limitations on debt credit report dictates that such a loan could last up to 4 years.
Anyone registering their AR-15 (or seeking a loan to buy one) has to wonder how long it will be before California decides to go back to letting people keep their registered assault weapons and ban possession of those, as well.