CA DOJ on .50 BMG receiver only purchase

[50 Shooter]

For everyone that's still confused read this, it's was posted by the owner of Blue Grass Armory.

The following email was sent to me by the California DOJ, Firearms Division. In short, they have no problem with the receivers since the receiver is considered a gun.

I sincerely hope this supresses the rumor mill that seems to be out of control concerning this topic.

Thanks for your time.

Jeff Caudill
Bluegrass Armory

--------------------------

Date: Tue, 09 Nov 2004 11:03:25 -0800
From: Karen Kerr, California Department of Justice, Firearms Division.

Subject: Inquiry to the Firearms Division
To: [email protected]

Dear Mr. Caudill,

Thank you for your recent inquiry to the Firearms Division. The
Department of Justice is working with a January 3rd (Monday), 2005
implementation target date.

The statute adds paragraph (2) to subdivision (a) of Penal Code section
12285, promulgating a December 31, 2004 acquisition deadline date for
..50 BMG Rifles and providing a registration period that begins in
January 2005 and runs through April 30, 2006. The registration fee is
promulgated in statute as $25.

It should be noted that the .50 BMG Rifle is defined in Penal Code
section 12278 (a) as, "...a center fire rifle that can fire a .50 BMG
cartridge and is not already an assault weapon pursuant to Section
12276, 12276.1, or 12276.5, or a machine gun, as defined in Section
12200."

And, 12278 (c) states that a ''.50 BMG rifle'' does
not include
any ''antique firearm,'' nor any curio or relic as
defined in
Section 178.11 of Title 27 of the Code of Federal Regulations."

12278 (b) states that, "As used in this chapter, a ''.50
BMG
cartridge'' means a cartridge that is designed and intended to
be
fired from a center fire rifle and that meets all of the following
criteria:
(1) It has an overall length of 5.54 inches from the base to the tip of
the bullet.
(2) The bullet diameter for the cartridge is from .510 to, and
including, .511 inch.
(3) The case base diameter for the cartridge is from .800 inch to, and
including, .804 inch.
(4) The cartridge case length is 3.91 inches.

It is lawful for a California resident to receive a 50 BMG receiver.
The receiver is considered to be a firearm. California residents may
purchase these receivers up until December 31, 2004 as long as the
transfer is completed through a California dealer.

Please check our website in the future for more information.

Thank you,

K. J. Kerr, Analyst
Firearms Division
Department of Justice

 

[El Rojo]

Why didn't the .50 FUCA ever catch on? Should I try e-mailing everyone again or has the .50 BMG died in this state for now? Oh well.

 

[The_Antibubba]

Let's get radical

Now is the time to develop a .50 Caseless round!

 

[50 Shooter]

Sorry El but the Mfgs. just aren't going to put the money out for it. They are going to want to try changing the existing .50 case and chamber as little as possible to get around the law. If they even plan to do this at all, after all it's just KA and not the rest of the country.

 

[El Rojo]

Because it is only the PRK and they would have the whole market, I think someone should run with the .50 FUCA. Shorten the case and keep everything the same. Boom! The same rifle you had before and now perfectly leagal for those PRK residents who want a .50 without registering it.

 

[TechBrute]

I wouldn't think that CADOJ would have a problems with it, since that's what everyone did KA banned EBRs.

 

[50 Shooter]

Here's the bad part, a guy I shoot with was talking to one of the Mfgs. Someone else asked the question about changing the chamber size/bore diameter. He basically said "NO" end of story.

What he really said was that if someone wants to "pay" for it, then it's up to them. He just wasn't going to retool to make them.

 

[artherd]

This interpretation does infact seem inconsistant, as a reciver alone clearly CANNOT fire a ".50BMG cartridge", so how can it be a ".50BMG rifle" at the time of registration?

Now we have two directly contradicting letters in print on this matter, both from the DOJ.

CA DOJ should be sued to remove these conflicting laws.

 

[artherd]

It is lawful for a California resident to receive a 50 BMG receiver.
The receiver is considered to be a firearm. California residents may
purchase these receivers up until December 31, 2004 as long as the
transfer is completed through a California dealer.

Hold on! Everything she says above is true, however she never states that we can infact REGISTER the reciver AS A ".50BMG RIFLE"!

"The reciver is considered to be a firearm" Great, but no mention of wether it is considered to also be a ".50BMG RIFLE" which has a different definition, that being capable of FIRING a ".50BMG cartridge".

California residents may
purchase these receivers up until December 31, 2004 as long as the
transfer is completed through a California dealer.

Yes, this is also true, we may pruchase the recivers. But may we posess them AFTER December 31, 2004 if we could not register them as full .50BMG rifles?



AB50 needs to be rewritten or repealed.

 

[Sven]

I had to bail on buying a 50 due to the realities of being a new homeowner.

I'm resigned to getting something in 6.5x284 or 338 Lapua if I find time for LR.

 

[artherd]

Sven- there's always .408 Chey Tac, at 1,000yards it has MORE retained energy than .50BMG due to better ballistics!

And it is much more accurate/modern/match platform. (no surplus API-T though )