Now I’ve been hearing random notes around the internet that my Walther P22 isn’t legal in CA. While that interests me since I go visit my mother in CA — It doesn’t really matter because if you so much as look the wrong way in CA w/ a gun they’ll shoot you on site. I did a little net diving and came up with the following. If you read Cali SB23, it characterizes what is an “assault weapon”. Bit 4A reads: “A semiautomatic pistol that has the capacity to accept a detachable magazine and any one of the following: A threaded barrel, capable of accepting a flash suppressor, forward hand grip, or silencer.”. This is the key since many semi-auto pistols (including my Walther) have threaded barrels for silencers.
I also went and found the bit about transporting guns in California. Several people have told me a number of varying stories about what is and isn’t legal to transport in CA — everything from “you can’t w/o a CCW” to “you have to have the ammo locked up in a separate case”. Well below is the bit of legalese about it.
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California Penal Code section 12025 does not prevent a citizen of the United States over 18 years of age who is not within any of the classes excepted from firearm possession and who resides or is temporarily in California from transporting by motor vehicle any pistol, revolver, or other firearm capable of being concealed upon the person if the firearm is unloaded and in a locked container.
The term “locked container” means a secure container which is fully enclosed and locked by a padlock, key lock, combination lock, or similar locking device. This includes the trunk of a motor vehicle, but does not include the utility or glove compartment. For more information, refer to California Penal Code Section 12026.1. —California Firearms Transportation
The Penal code reads just about the same thing and says nothing about banned weapons in CA being transported. Though back to the assault weapon FAQ it says: “I have a registered assault weapon. If I travel outside of California with the firearm, can I bring the firearm back into California? Yes, as a long as it is transported in accordance with Penal Code sections 12285 and 12026.1.“. Of course this isn’t a ton of help to me — because my gun isn’t an assault weapon in Nevada. Also my gun isn’t licensed as such in California. So the answer? ::shrug:: I wouldn’t transport the gun to CA unless I absolutely _had_ to, but I’d be interested if someone had a more definitive answer.
Enough legal crap for now — eh?