What does California Compliant mean?

[engineerbrian]

I wonder if it was blocked off where you could take out rivets or pins to remove it? or was it just never milled out for the magazine to feed from the bottom?

IIRC it was never milled out. Once he sends me a pic of it i'll post it

 

[wilcam47]

IIRC it was never milled out. Once he sends me a pic of it i'll post it

I looked up a few versions of it but it looks to be just pinned by the mag release or something...I couldnt tell too much difference by looking at pics...

Probably unpredictable. I'll bet it's similar to Connecticut where the distributors hire unskilled minimum-wage goons to hack up the rifles in random, sometimes-dangerous ways. My father saw a new AR-15 in Connecticut a few weeks ago where the distributor pinned the collapsible stock by drilling a hole through the tube part of the buffer tube and putting a pin all the way through.

Im surprised the buffer had enough room to even operate the bolt correctly..

 

[sgt23preston]

Sgt Preston here...

It means that it must be pink in color...

Sorry I just couldn't resist...

 

[Boom Boom]

Im surprised the buffer had enough room to even operate the bolt correctly..

It didn't/couldn't operate. The rifle was new, unfired, in the store, waiting for somebody clueless to buy it. Somebody as clueless as the person who butchered it.

 

[HardHatMan]

Here's a good article about CA compliant rifles.

http://www.tenpercentfirearms.com/index.php?main_page=ar15

 

[Ironnewt]

It doesn't have to be a permanent "fix". I converse with a guy on another site who has a family member in AZ or NV. When they get together to shoot, the guy changes it to a standard configuration. He just makes sure he puts his CA parts back before he goes home.

 

[BlueHeeler]

California compliant is very similar to DC law, actually DC cut and pasted their law from CA which was cut and pasted from the AWB ban.

As it applies to your question, if a rifle has a detachable magazine it cannot have an ‘evil’ features like pistol grip, telescoping or folding stock, flash hider, grenade/flare launcher, forward pistol grip, etc…

Calguns did some tremendous legal work to require CA legislature to define their terms regarding detachable magazine. The CA legislature said a detachable magazine means the magazine can be readily removed. According to CA law, a fixed magazine means there must be a tool to remove the magazine. That was the birth of the bullet button. In order to eject the magazine on a rifle with a bullet button which is the same magazine used in MD, you have to use a cartridge to push the release which is recessed in the lower. Otherwise the functionality is identical.

Californians have two options for ownership of an “assault rifle”. Either it is fixed magazine with a bullet button or it does not have evil features. There is some way to back register an AK, but I am not versed in that degree of CA law.

My M1A is California (and consequently DC) compliant because I replaced the flash hider with the CA version. That rifle is detachable mag with no evil features. My Yugo SKS is also CA compliant with an evil grenade launcher because it has a fixed magazine. My Mini 14 is California compliant because it has a muzzle brake/flash hider. According to ATF muzzle brakes are not evil. If it just was a flash hider, I would be in prison trouble.

I hope that helps make it clear as mud, because that is how the laws were written.

 

[Hol3shot]

^^^^ Very good description for long guns.

All hand guns have to be drop tested. This also means all of the same versions of a handgun in different finishes have to be tested separately. Hence the reason you can only get a lot of only black version guns. Ie. Desert Eagle

 

[mikec]

^^^^ Very good description for long guns.

All hand guns have to be drop tested. This also means all of the same versions of a handgun in different finishes have to be tested separately. Hence the reason you can only get a lot of only black version guns. Ie. Desert Eagle

Change sights and CA considers it a different gun.

However, once the handgun is transferred to it's owner, the owner can do anything to that handgun. Yep, that law makes a lot of sense..

 

[engineerbrian]

So my buddy didn’t feel like digging the CA lower out of his safe for a pic, but he sent me some pics that he found on line. He said the mag well is indeed closed off with milling it out as the only option of opening it.

Here are the pics he found online and are identical to what he has

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[HardHatMan]

So my buddy didn’t feel like digging the CA lower out of his safe for a pic, but he sent me some pics that he found on line. He said the mag well is indeed closed off with milling it out as the only option of opening it.

Here are the pics he found online and are identical to what he has

Nice. A Fab-10 lower. I bet those are worth something nowadays.

 

[swinokur]

Means they have smog controls.

 

[Eddie Van]

A buddy of mine lived in CA for a while and bought an AR while he was there. His mag well was actually sealed off completely and he had to pivot the upper receiver on the front pin and load the internal mag manually. Needless to say once he moved out he bought a new lower.

I’ll see if he can send me a pic of of the CA lower

I'm an ex-Cali resident and the bullet button was specifically to counter this nonsense above (BTW, your buddy was hard core, I just did with out an AR...). The CA law kept the '94 AWB stipulations and added some extra BS to get to the neutered AR (no removable mag, 10 round mag limit, no flash hider, no bayonet lug, no adjustable stock, etc)

 

[wilcam47]

So my buddy didn’t feel like digging the CA lower out of his safe for a pic, but he sent me some pics that he found on line. He said the mag well is indeed closed off with milling it out as the only option of opening it.

Here are the pics he found online and are identical to what he has

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Dremel it out but ya thats pretty neutered!

 

[Wynter]

I was raised in MD and moved around while serving in the US Navy, eventually settling in CA. When I lived there, most recently from 2001 - 2009, "assault weapons" were completely banned. I was not able to purchase my AK and AR until after I moved back to MD.

The gun rights advocates have been VERY active in CA in the intervening years, successfully lobbying for lesser restrictions and allowing for AK and AR variant rifles. They have stuck to the limit on ten round magazines, but allow for full 30 round magazines as long as they are fixed.

The ballistics and lethality of the weapon has not changed, to my knowledge, and the only real limit that I know of is the magazine capacity and ease of changing the actual magazine. Some early models that hit the market right after the ban lifted had fixed magazines. My brother in law, who still lives in San Diego, says the market is getting better, but we will see.

Our brethren in California continue to fight for many of the rights that those of us in MD take for granted.

 

[Boats]

http://www.calguns.net/caawid/flowchart.pdf

I lived in CA for a great while. Living out here for a year now.

CA compliant means it is in accordance with the flowchart in the link above. So:

IF the rifle is featureless (no pistolgrip, forward pistol grip, folding or collapsable stock, thumbhole stock, grenade/flare launcher, or flash hider) then you can have detachable hi-cap mags on it. (CA is like MD where possession is not illegal, however importing them is, unlike MD). So an M1a can run 20-rd mags that are detachable and not be an assault weapon. Adding a Monsterman grip to an AR or AK removes the pistolgrip.

IF the rifle has a pistolgrip, forward pistol grip, folding or collapsable stock, thumbhole stock, grenade/flare launcher, or flash hider then a tool (any item NOT part of the weapons mechanism) must be required to remove the magazine from the weapon (the bullet button is the most popular because you use the tip of a bullet to drop the mag, but drilling and tapping an allen screw in the magwell works too). AND the capacity of the "fixed" magazine cannot exceed 10rds.

The rifle cannot be one of the specifically banned assault weapons.

Cannot be chambered in .50BMG or have a barrel less than 16". (AOWs are legal in CA, SBR/SBS are not)

These only apply to centerfire, semi-auto rifles, rimfire does not apply, neither does repeaters.


So technically, according to CA law, if you took an M1a with a 20-rd mag and added a bullet button, (reducing the function of it) it would make it an assault rifle and a felony. CA is a strange place.

It should be noted that if the rifle does not have a detachable mag then it can have as many of the other AW features as you want: pistolgrip, forward pistol grip, folding or collapsable stock, thumbhole stock, grenade/flare launcher, or flash hider

 

[Boats]

They have stuck to the limit on ten round magazines, but allow for full 30 round magazines as long as they are fixed.

This will get you a felony in CA. Fixed mags have a 10-rd limit according to CA Penal code 12276.1.

 

[Boats]

My Yugo SKS is also CA compliant with an evil grenade launcher because it has a fixed magazine.

As long as it is 10rd or less. But it seems like you get it based on the other things you said.

 

[Wynter]

Thanks for the update boats

 

[fivepointstar]

So my buddy didn’t feel like digging the CA lower out of his safe for a pic, but he sent me some pics that he found on line. He said the mag well is indeed closed off with milling it out as the only option of opening it.

Here are the pics he found online and are identical to what he has

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that receiver looks kinda cheap....thanks for the pics!!!!