Rather than type it again I will repost what I posted previously on the topic:
What good is an unloaded gun? You might as well have a teddy bear on your hip.
The freedom that was retained has nothing to do with self defense.
It really has nothing to do with even strapping an unloaded gun on. That is just what a small minority choose to do in designated areas for a short period of time.
If this had passed then it would have made having an unloaded handgun illegal. Then the moment the lock on a gun case with a handgun in it clicked open you would be in criminal possession of a gun.
Click open the gun case in the parking lot before hiking out to where hunting is allowed? Criminal. Have more than one gun in a case and want to leave one in the trunk or move it to another case? Criminal. Want to check on the contents and make sure you have everything you need before you head out? Criminal.
It must remain where it is until in an area it is currently legal to have a loaded handgun.
Want to take it from your home to the vehicle in your driveway to put it in the trunk or in a case you already move to the car?
Criminal.
Want to take a gun from in your home to inside your garage if you don't have a door between the two, or to a shed or other building? Criminal.
It would have even become a crime to have an unloaded gun in some wilderness if this had passed! Places where one can currently unload a gun and walk through to get to the hunting spot on the other side, and then load it and hunt.
They were trying to apply 12031 restrictions to unloaded handguns. The definition of an illegal place under PC12031 is anywhere it is unlawful to discharge the firearm (recreationally like setting up a target, not self defense or hunting etc) it is unlawful to have the gun loaded.
This includes so many feet from a road, so many feet from every structure etc.
This would have made it a crime to have an unloaded handgun in the forest so many feet from a road! Or an unloaded handgun while going withing so many hundred yards of a structure. Some places even define such areas as so many yards from a trail!
It could have virtually put an end to handgun hunting in many portions of the state, or even having a handgun in the woods unless you carried it into the allowable zone in the forest in a locked case.
Quote:
Can you carry ammo on your person at the same time you open carry your unloaded firearm?
Yes, even a loaded detached magazine if the magazine is not concealed.
But you still cannot carry it for self defense:
People can still not carry even an unloaded gun on them and go about their day. You have to go within 1,000 feet of a school zone to go almost anywhere in a suburb or city in California. In rural areas that only have a few roads, they tend to have their elementary, middle, and high schools located on those only roads, often the only way in and out. You have to go within 1,000 feet of them typically.
This means the California Gun Free School Zone law from the 90s still makes it a crime to strap even an unloaded handgun on and go about a regular day.
This means it would be a crime to even drive by a school zone in your vehicle with an unloaded gun, and most roads are nowhere near 1,000 feet wide so you would be breaking the law every time you traveled by foot or vehicle.
The people that carry unloaded don't even carry unloaded to the location for that reason. They have to plot out a destination more than 1,000 feet from school zones, go there, put on the unloaded gun, stand around, and then remove the unloaded gun before they leave.
Oh and protesting with a gun is a serious crime in California (even police cannot have an empty gun when they protest or strike), so technically they cannot even officially be involved in a protest.
