California + Federal gun laws?

[spamn]

I am fairly new to the state of California and I have looked every for the gun laws, but I can't find exactly what I'm looking for. I'm from Missouri where the gun laws are A LOT more liberal.

I am active military and currently residing in California. From what I've been told, assault rifles are illegal in California, except for pre-ban weapons and top loading weapons. I cannot get a straight answer about any military exceptions, though.

What it comes down to is I want to buy an a Bushmaster M4 Carbine from a friend, can I legally do it?

I'm not sure of all the California rules. It's not preban. 16" barrel, Izzy flash suppresor. It's not a military, law enforcement version, or anything like that.

 

[Hank Zudd]

try

calguns.net; do a search & you'll go blind reading all the stuff they're going thru. In a nutshell, any gun you want to keep, don't take it. There's arcane laws about registering out of state guns, having an approved safe or gun locks for each one (there's lists of qualified products for both) They're not nice to deal with. But, hey read the postings there & make your own decision. I escaped last year.

 

[Hank Zudd]

another thing

be sure to go to page 2 of the legal fourm (calguns) & read the post "warning".

 

[spamn]

Not sure if I got everything out of that post that you wanted me to get. From what I understand is that being active military gives me no exceptions (expect on duty, yada, yada, yada). I am technically not a citizen of California, but I am here, and I have to abide by the California rules.

I found a huge read of the California gun laws. We all know they can be hard to read. They have the listed of "no go" AW for the state. Under bushmaster it says XM15 series and that's it. I went to Bushmaster's website and the only XM15 weapons were under their law enforcement and military section. The civilian weapons were not called that. However, in the civilian section they had the "top loading California legal" weapon. (Which I am not interested in). I'm confused. California law states that the XM15 series is banned. Bushmaster has like 4 rifles in this category, none of which are called XM15, but one is California legal.

Regardless, by California law, they are all illegal expect the top loading one, correct? They are short rifles, the have pistol grips, telescoping stock, etc. No flash hider though, just a compensator.

Please ease my confused mind.

 

[kd5rov]

You can dig through the "California Firearms Laws Summary Booklet" and see if you can make heads or tails out of it.

http://ag.ca.gov/firearms/forms/pdf/Cfl2006.pdf

 

[billwiese]

Ordinary folks simply cannot bring in an assault weapon into CA. The assault weapon term even includes things like M1As/Mini14s with flash hiders but regular stocks. (CA versions of these guns have bare muzzles or a muzzle brake). Even pistols w/threaded bbls like Walther P22s and HK USP Tacticals are AWs. The only people that can have AWs in CA were those that had them before they were banned (either by make/model, or by generic definition) and registered them.

IF you are active duty military stationed here you can contact the DOJ Firearms Division in Sacramento to get an "MAWP" - Military Assault Weapons Permit. Do this BEFORE you bring the gun(s) into CA. You can have them only during the duration of your service. If you separate from service in CA, you have to move your AWs outside of CA beforehand: no "keepsies" here.

While the DOJ may look aside to this the MAWP does not include permission to import hicap magazines (those over 10rds). Ask for separate permission, otherwise don't bring 'em in.

People in CA are building up 'off-list' ARs - they get a receiver or gun not banned by name, with a fixed 10rd mag (break-top to load) - or run without flash hider nor telestock and run 'grip free' and can then use a detachable magazine. Instead of a pistol grip, a bracket keeps the selector detent pin in. Also, the 'Monsterman' grip is available, works with a std A2 stock and does not count as a pistol grip - kinda ugly and tumor-like, but practical and useful given the legal context.

Calguns.Net has a Gun Rights & Legal Forum that discusses a lot of this.


Bill Wiese
San Jose