My info is based on speaking with 2 different FFL dealers when I wanted to make a private party purchase.
1 FFL dealer may have had their own agenda trying to make me purchase something brand new from them. The other FFL only deals with xfers, so I doubt it was in his interest to steer me wrong.
But in any case, I am not a lawyer so can't interpret all the legalese, so take it all with a grain of salt and do your own research. If you visit
http://certguns.doj.ca.gov/ at the top they have a notice and it makes it look like private party is ok. If you download the summary of laws pdf on the left hand side (page 42 I believe) , it is a little confusing because it talks about the restrictions, and under exemptions it lists private party.
But this is what was explained to me:
CA treats all out of state private party as a local sale from the local FFL. That way they can charge you sales tax. So since it is now a local in state sale, you are bound by the certified handgun list. So they win two ways, one you can't find an easy bypass to their restriction, and two they can collect money from you. I can understand the first as a way to make sure you aren't getting past a loophole, but I totally disagree with the second. Since you are not paying the sales price to the FFL dealer, it should not be considered a taxable sale.
Now I did speak to a third FFL, but not specifically about handguns because I had already made my purchase and was no longer in the market, about rifles, and he did say that I would have to pay sales tax. So that may or may not be a confirmation that out of state sales are treated as in state sales.
Anyways, I wanted to be polite and answer the questions, but don't want to hurt the cause by spreading mis-information, so hopefully someone that knows for sure can chime in. I'd be very interested in buying something off-list from a private party if I can.