california ammunition background check
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By NRA-ILA

Beginning July 1, 2019, all ammunition transactions in the state of California will be subject to a background check requirement.  But in order to implement this requirement, the California Department of Justice (“DOJ”) must first adopt necessary regulations which, as of yesterday, have been submitted to the Office of Administrative Law (“OAL”) for review.

As reported earlier, California gun owners were given an opportunity to comment on DOJ’s proposed regulations on two separate occasions. NRA and CRPA jointly submitted two comprehensive comment letters on DOJ’s proposal.

The first letter highlighted the many key substantive provisions lacking in the proposal and serious issues as to the required authority, clarity, and consistency required by California’s Administrative Procedures Act.  The second letter addressed key revisions and statements made by DOJ during a recent stakeholder’s meeting concerning the proposed regulations.

OAL has until July 1—the day the new requirements are scheduled to take effect—to approve or deny DOJ’s proposed regulations. Assuming OAL approves, California gun owners need to know what to expect when purchasing ammunition beginning July 1. To that end, NRA and CRPA have prepared a comprehensive Information Bulletin addressing many frequently asked questions regarding the upcoming ammunition background check requirements.

In the meantime, NRA and CRPA are working to obtain a copy of the regulations as submitted to OAL to determine any necessary course of action. Members should also know that a lawsuit, titled Rhode v. Becerra, has already been filed challenging California’s new ammunition sales restrictions.

Continue to check your inbox and the California Stand and Fight webpage for updates on issues impacting your Second Amendment rights and hunting heritage in California.

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90 COMMENTS

  1. By this time any wise gun owner has filled their basement with ammo, reloading supplies, brass, etc.
    If not, well you were warned.

      • It is already illegal to import ammo into the state without first having it delivered to an FFL or licensed ammo dealer, unless one is exempt (C&R +COE). On the other hand, reloading supplies are NOT currently regulated.

        • Don’t tell them that. Otherwise they will come up with restrictions on the transport of propellants and primers as being explosives.

        • It’s also illegal for them to pass these laws, but that never stopped anyone.

          ROAD TRIP indeed.

        • What is Kommiefornistan going to do? Set up roadside checkpoints at every highway, road, street and dirt backroad coming into the State and do an illegal search fro ammunition?
          Road trip indeed.

        • Um, Mark, that is false. As of today, you can still personally (e.g., driving in your vehicle) bring in as much as you want. And after July 1, the law STILL allows you to bring in up to 50 rounds per adult, per instance of border entry (which is not defined in the CA Penal Code, but generally accepted without argument as per diem). So whenever you travel outside CA to neighboring OR, NV, or AZ, you will still be legally able to bring back some ammo, albeit in smaller amounts. If it’s you and your spouse together, then bring back a box of 100 rds without worry.

    • Doesn’t matter. Many of us will happily mail any amount of ammo to California. We are beyond the reach of their stupid laws and borders. Ain’t capitalism grand?

  2. I’ll be living in Texas by then but I feel bad for my friends, family, and fellow gun owners trapped in that awful state.

    • I understand your plight but am sad that people are leaving Cali for lots of reasons (crap and needles on the sidewalk).

      This then metastasizes the Cali cancer to the rest of the US.

      We have similar problem with upper east coast transplants here in FL.

      • You pathetic hick, can’t separate truth from stereotype. You must be a specialist at being insensitively ignorant. Have you ever thought to consider that people are leaving California for the same reasons that you would? If you lived there you would probably get the hell out too so why do you knock them for recognizing your state as a better place to live? What despair one might experience if they where unfortunate enough to end up next door to you.

        • You hick…yeah, and this is why there will come a point where transplants from California, New York, Massachusetts and others will be about as welcome as plague sufferers were in mideaval towns. Washington, Oregon, Colorado, now Nevada and parts of Texas, Florida and soon others will demonstrate why “foreign” neighbors are bad neighbors. Keep it up though, to the best of my knowledge no “immigrant” family has been burned out, yet, for being democrats and traitors in a land where they are ill tolerated. Perhaps people like you can change that. Great Job!

  4. Ah the massive distortion in the market this will cause with hording and smuggling. Pretty soon street dealers will make more off 9mm than they do off selling H.

    God Lefties are so fucking retarded. The Gov here in my state just did this kind of thing with insulin. Because yeah, further distorting the market with perverse incentives will fix the underlying problem!

    Fucking morons.

  5. Can’t we just build a wall around California and give it back to Mexico so we don’t have to put up with their bullsh!t

    • Turn the people’s republic of California into the cartel’s new playground.

      • It’s the (majority) Latino population in California that is voting this stuff in.
        How do you think we get people like Xavier Becerra, Jesse Gabriel, Kamala Harris.
        It does for the democrats what shale fracking did for the oil companies-An untapped source of high potential.
        Political divides are deeply racial here though few will admit to that, it is one of those things we are expected to ignore out of “political correctness”.
        I am not stating this as a bigot, in fact I can sympathize somewhat when I look at the death rates due to gun shootings.
        Yes California has ridiculous legislation but the reality is that it is influenced by the values of a strong foreign culture. Is it right, is it wrong? Is it just the way change happens?

    • Remember that several million people voted for the conservative candidate (John Cox got 40% of the votes) in last year’s gubernatorial race against Screwball Newsom (henceforth “Screwsom”). We have more conservatives here behind enemy lines of the DPRK than the entire populations of most other states! Do not abandon us to continue fighting for change by ourselves…we already have enough craziness from Sacramento to fight against, without having to worry about our alleged 2A brethren elsewhere writing us off and abandoning us.

      • We feel your pain, and as most of us know, your home state is usually a proving ground for all the rest of the states that lean that way. I speak from experience, ain’t nobody safe!

  6. Chris Rock said it first, “We don’t need gun control, we need BULLET control” Well here it is.

    I’m in SC and our WalMarts ask “is this for pistol or rifle” when buying 22LR ammo. My reply is “I don’t know, you pick” and I don’t say another word.

    • I’m in MS. Nobody asks those kinds of stupid questions. Not in wally world, the lgs, or our co-op.

      • But they used to…..

        I worked in a Mercantile store in the 70s and back then you had to sign for ammunition.

        And we had to ask if it was for a rifle or pistol if the buyer was less than 21.

        BATF would come by every couple of years and page the log to see what ammo had been purchased and by whom.

        Law was changed after Reagan took office.

      • Mississippi Population =2.987 mil.
        California Population = 39.56 mil.
        Disneyland 2018 Attendance = 18,666,000

        Hard to understand why it is so different.

    • They do that in Ohio too and if you say “I don’t know, you pick” and are under 21 they’ll pick pistol and deny the sale.

      • I’m in rural southern Ohio and haven’t experienced this since I was so young that I clearly was under 18…even then the lgs would sell me ammo though, so I’m not even sure why they asked. For context, I could buy .22 ammo at my lgs in 1986 when I was 10 years old. Might have been able too sooner, and while I got my first gun, a .22 rifle when I was 8, I wasnt allowed to take it out without supervision until I was 10, and wasn’t allowed to ride my bike to that side of the village until then either….things sure have changed.

        Along those same lines, and I’ve related this here before, when I was in school in a village of 3000 in southern Ohio back in the late 80s and early 90s it wasn’t uncommon at all to see shotguns in rifle racks of students vehicles in the HS parking lot or even left in the principals office for the day since bus riders would sometimes bring them in the .morning and leave after school with a friend who had a car to hunt in the afternoon.

        As a junior in that HS I arrived one Monday morning to realize I still had an airweight. 38 snubby, loaded, in my coat pocket. Not having a car on campus, I elected to leave it with the principal, who simply unloaded it and put it in his desk drawer. After school he gave it back, with the ammo, and suggested I not load it until I got home.

        The only people to have attended my HS to ever have been shot recieved their wounds in Korea and Vietnam, and now I suppose Iraq and Afghanistan.

        I likewise never took flak for riding around the village with a rifle in a scabbard attached to my bicycle, even as young as 10. This wasn’t the 50s, it was the 80s…i wasn’t on my way to kill anything but rats at the dump, and everyone knew it. Guns really haven’t changed much, but people sure have.

    • Dumb answer if you want to be able to buy it. Just say “rifle” and avoid the games.

      • Their regular prices are too high but the sale prices can be very good. I bought bricks of Federal Auto Match at $15 a brick when they were selling elsewhere at $100 or more. Of course, delivery was delayed 13 months, but Cabela’s did honor the price on stuff back ordered from the day after Sandy Hook.

      • I don’t recognize the “handle” but I think I was in that same “Secret Group”. Used a “Chrome UA Spoofer” to get multiples and see what was really on hand. Racked up quite an inventory

    • A criminal needs at most one magazine to commit a violent crime. An honest person planning to attend a shooting school or just maintain proficiency needs hundreds of rounds. All this will accomplish is a decrease in the proficiency of honest gun owners. They will buy a gun for self defense, fire less than one box of ammunition, and then put it away in a drawer for decades.

      • There are no limits on the amount or calibers of ammunition you can buy in a single transaction. The statutory fee for Cal residents is $1. The people who get the short straw are the sellers, as they are the ones who have to record all of the information (name, /L or other ID number, descriptions of all ammo sold (amount and caliber), and apparently a few other pieces of info required by the DOJ form that are not included in the statute, such as citizenship, and submit all of that info to the DOJ for processing. Unless ammo prices go up jut for California (a hidden processing fee), dealers are not getting paid to do this work.

        • The $1 background check only works if you’re already in the CA AFS system as an established registered owner of a know gun. If you legally own guns that were inherited, built, or otherwise obtained in past years without the requirement of registration, then you will not pass AFS and therefore will have to go through the full CADOJ check which costs $19 and takes up to 10 days.

  7. “Got any fruit, vegetables or bullets? ” Answer as you deem fit, but if you say yes, you’ll have to eat them before they let you in.

  8. If you live in .CA and sneak ammo in after July get rid of the boxes because the lot codes can implicate you.
    Sadly it’s come to this.

    • No need to sneak. AB 1235 updates the CA Penal Code to still allow for a non-felon adult to bring in (“import”) up to a maximum of 50 rds per border entry. There are still several ways to import ammo without the background check (selected portions shown below):

      *****
      CA Penal Code 30368

      (a) Commencing July 1, 2019, a resident of this state shall not bring or transport into this state any ammunition that he or she purchased from outside of this state unless he or she first has that ammunition delivered to an ammunition vendor in this state for delivery to that resident pursuant to the procedures set forth in Section 30366

      (b) Subdivision (a) does not apply to any of the following bringing or transporting into this state any ammunition:

      (11) A person who purchases the ammunition from an immediate family member, spouse, or registered domestic partner if the person brings or transports into this state no more than 50 rounds.

      (12) The executor or administrator of an estate that includes ammunition.

      (15) A licensed hunter who purchased the ammunition outside of this state for use in a lawful hunting activity that occurred outside of this state if the person brings or imports no more than 50 rounds into this state and the ammunition is designed and intended for use in the firearm the hunter used in that hunting activity.

      (16) A person who attended and participated in an organized competitive match or league competition that involves the use of firearms in a match or competition sponsored by, conducted under the auspices of, or approved by, a law enforcement agency or a nationally or state recognized entity that fosters proficiency in, or promotes education about, firearms, and the person brings or imports into this state no more than 50 rounds of ammunition designed and intended to be used in the firearm the person used in the match or competition.

      • Who writes these rules? Are these numbers pulled out of the air or someone’s rectal orifice? I will pack at least 200 rounds for a hunting trip and 300+ for competition events.

        • Tell me about it! I litterally carry more than 50 rounds as part of my EDC. Unless I could prove I bought that ammo in Cali, I couldn’t even get I to the state with my loaded G19, pair of spare mags and loaded .380 BG on my ankle…oh, wait…my Gen 4 G19 isn’t on the roster..and my Ohio CCW isn’t recognized in Cali… alright, so, attempting to enter the state of California with what I carry around Ohio, Kentucky and WV everyday would make me a felon how many ways? 3, 4? I’m just about ok with offering an amnesty period, during which any Californian with US citizenship can get out, and then enforcing a border with Cali that keeps us out and them in!

          Maybe I’m crazy, but I often quip that I won’t take a flight that might so much as crash land in CA, NJ, NY, or MA…in those places everything from my pocket knife to my ammo type to my ammo count to the types of weapons I carry would make me a felon…all stuff that 38 states are totally cool with me carrying all the time. I sometimes explain that in order for me to visit New Hampshire or Vermont I’d have to cross into Canadian territory (with my things stowed and declared) at the Sau Saint Marie crossing in MI, then come down from above. The only other way I can think of would be to take a boat out of Virginia and sail into international waters, head north, then come inland….that we have a serious problem is readily apparent, what isn’t clear is what is to be done about it.

          I’m somewhat hopeful (if only from desperation) that the reconfigured SC will begin to correct these senseless, dangerous, outrageously unconstitutional situations that plague not only our second amendment, but also our freedom of travel. If they fail, I’m no longer certain that the union will peacefully remain.

  10. Besides being the worlds best female shotgunner, Kim Rhode has picked a world class fight. (Well, her and a few others)

    Go Kim!

    • And she’s the nicest person. I met her at SHOT and kinda fanboi’d out a bit. She’s practically super human.

    • Hard to believe how she learned to shoot growing up in California.
      Not bad for a Commiefornian.
      (There. Do I fit in with the crowd now?)

  11. NY tried the same shit and ended up giving up on the whole thing because of the costs and complexity. Knowing them, they’ll decide it’s worth the waste in resources once they see California putting it in practice.

    • Exactly what I’m wondering. State Police gave up after a couple years. I thought at one point they asked Feds if they could use NICS and were told NFW, not designed for that volume of inquiries.

      • The CADOJ is supposed to set up its own computers and hire staff to perform the so-called background check. The check consists of two parts: 1) do you have any firearm registered to you in California? if yes, then 2) are you listed on the APPS website (armed prohibited persons)? If not, then you are good to go IF BUT ONLY IF you are a California resident and can produce a California ID. Cost: $1. This is SUPPOSED to be an “instant” check, but the DOJ has apparently revealed in its proposed regulations that it will not be, with no indication as to how long it will take to process “applications.”

        If you are NOT a California resident, you have to have a “full” background check performed ($19), and presumably have to wait for 10 days to get your ammo, unless, but only unless, you have a COE and C&R license or receive the ammo from a close family member (i.e. parent or child, but apparently not a sibling). From what the NRA has been able to gather, the DOJ computer system cannot input out of state IDs unless they are military ids.

        • Not that I’d step foot in the state if I had a choice, but does the full background check (assuming delays on the order of days) mean out of state hunting is likely to end up essentially impossible?

        • I am not sure, but I think that you can bring in your own ammo–up to a point of course. I do not know how people going to shooting competitions are supposed to proceed..

    • Correct , part of the safe act ,was background checks on all ammo purchases . That failed as NiCS doesn’t do ammo , and NYS couldn’t come up with a workable plan .

      Good luck Calf.

      • California does its own background checks, so no NICS issue. And it borrowed $150 million to build a new system just for this purpose, plus hire and train the people to man it. If the $1 per search fee doesn’t cover the cost, then they will just raise the fee.

  13. I can see it now: California Highway Patrol observing all traffic on major roads entering the state and looking specifically for cars that are riding low on their suspension because the car has 2,000 pounds of ammunition.

    • It’s all for personal use. The scale and baggies are for the pot I sell on weekends at swapmeets. I have to shoot a lot to protect my pot harvest. Yup sounds good to me.

  14. How do they plan to control ammo bought elsewhere and brought into Cali? Check all cars at the border? Do these people know they are not logical and represent the epitome of DUH?

    • It will be an add-on charge if they pull you over for something else and search your vehicle. It is an infraction for the first offense–but the CHP seizes all the ammo. On the other hand, the DOJ has been known to send agents to the big shows in Vegas or Reno, and record the license numbers for California cars, which licenses are then reported to the CHP.

      • State police over here in NY used to do the same thing with PA gun shows. Rental car and cross loading in nearbyparking lots was a suggested workaround but extra expenses for ammo runs still hurt (I heard more about unSAFE accessories for my region)

      • One of my friends who’s a career detective with the LASD confirmed that this is indeed true and not urban legend. CHP has entered into collaborative agreements with certain NV and AZ departments to “track” vehicles with CA plates whose occupants have been observed purchasing bulk ammo. The info will be passed along to CHP, which now has a new check station on the I-15 southbound about six miles from State Line (Primm).

        Of course, if you want to take the extra time, just go through Henderson and Searchlight, then south across the border through Nipton to re-connect with the I-15 a few miles south of the check station. Or even past Nipton all the way down to the I-40 and then go west to connect.

        Of course, I don’t advocate any unlawful activities…only ways to continue to travel without hassle.

        • Or…..you can just go the long way, come back through Mexico! Just say you feel threatened by your government, dont have to say which one!😏

      • Years ago Massachusetts used to do the same thing but for liquor buyers at the state liquor stores in New Hampshire. They would then swoop down on you returning to Massachusetts and confiscating all the booze.

        Then New Hampshire Governor John Sununu took action. He had all the Massachusetts under cover cops arrested in the parking lots for vagrancy! Problem solved. Massachusetts stopped that crap.

    • Doesn’t matter, they’ve turned you from a law-abiding gun owner into a criminal. That’s the goal of these laws. Maybe they’ll catch you today, maybe not, you’re still the ‘bad guy’ now.

      • Exactly the purpose of most gun laws. If legal armed citizens are a threat make more of them illegal and thin the numbers just enough that nobody revolts, repeat as needed.

  15. Cali, Ore, Wash, = socialism,,, time to get rid of libs, otherwise no more REAL AMERICA,,,

  17. Amazing how people who called for gay marriage, legalized pot and support the welfare industrial complex, those same people also NEVER SUPPORTED the Second Amendment. And they want to use the government to control how you to live. They have always been socialist progressive in their political orientation. Sacramento was a conservative town when I grew up there in the 1970s. Now its a sh*t hole just like San Francisco.

    • “On May 17, 2004, Massachusetts became the first U.S. state and the sixth jurisdiction in the world to legalize same-sex marriage”.

      “In 2012, Colorado and Washington state became the first states to vote to legalize marijuana for recreational purposes”

      [Sacramento was a conservative town when I grew up there in the 1970s]

      *It was the Blue-Bloods of Boston who stepped out first.
      *Is Colorado a commie ‘blue’ state too?
      *Jerry Brown’s stomping grounds conservative in the 1970’s ?
      You should of been an adult back then.

  18. Seems like a burden on the tax payer, I’ll repeat the same thing said a million times when you make something illegal you create an enterprise, supply and demand is practically human nature hence moonshine, drugs, prostitutes etc.

    • It doesn’t quite make it illegal but it is a pain in the ass. Like everything else these days, you will just have to plan ahead. I’m not sure it will be any different than waiting two weeks for the local Wal-Mart to restock.

  19. This is what Commiefornia is going to spend the bullet train money on. They’ll spend it on a different kind of bullet this time. Freaks.

    • “This is what Commiefornia is going to spend the bullet train money on.”
      The bullet train money was federal “Stimulus” money and that is just pissed away anyway. Think of it as post-lobbying profits being doled out to party on.

  20. So I can meet my friend at the nevada border and just walk back and forth with 50 rounds each time and then drive home…easy, peasy…

    • That is an odd thing to control as most Check point stations here are a few if not several miles from the border. They would have no idea how many trips back and forth you had made in any one day. What would keep you from dumping 500 rounds at the state line, park 50 feet on the other side and then just walk fifty over at a time. And eastern Lake Tahoe, By it in Nevada and walk it across the street to your hotel room in Cali. Bringing fireworks in is completely illegal, zero per border crossing.
      Little to nothing is done to police it but if you should get caught….

  21. The libs will still wonder why people purchase “thousands of rounds” at once despite this stupid regulation.

  22. I should just point out that a criminal using a handgun in crimes does not need an excessive anount of ammunition. Given how often a criminal actually discharges his firearm (yes, I said his) in the course of a crime a single 50 round box should last for years. On the other hand, 50 rounds is a good start in a law abiding citizen keeping his skills current. So who is the target of California Law?

    • We all know the answer to that. California’s laws are designed to make owning a firearm an onerous process for the average citizen. We all know this will have no effect on crime. Because the truth is, the left relies on the criminal communities for votes. Something I noticed when I lived there was that everything leftists do makes the average citizen poorer and more miserable and benefits the garbage of society.

      • Easier to control the broke and desperate especially when they lack the economic prospects to move.

        • Shit…I’m here because I can make triple the pay than I did back in NC.
          From day to day you really don’t notice the BS, I hear more than I see.
          Sounds worse than it really is. I’ll be here another 6-7 and then I’ll go back home and retire ten years early.

  24. Leave it to California to continue their assault on law abiding citizens. They think this will stop criminals from getting Ammunition. Don’t they realize that criminals buy their guns and ammo on the black market. Their real agenda with all these gun laws is to eventually gun confiscation. The democrats what to be able to control the citizenry like Hitler, Stalin.

    • “They think this will stop criminals from getting Ammunition.”

      No, they don’t. They know perfectly well that it will have exactly zero effect on criminals. This is aimed at me and you – law abiding citizens. The pretext of crime prevention is a lie.

  25. I purchase under 500 rounds a month on a simple vendors license.(no ffl required)
    My wife is my only customer. Wasn’t that hard to set up. The tough part is getting the distributors to sell you that small volume but some do.

  26. There is simply no point to even attempting to follow any California gun laws. The are egregious overreaches and oppressive. Ignoring the laws is the only option left.

    • Dr Martin Luther King would agree with you, civil disobedience is the only way to fight an unjust law.

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