OT...CA. State Gun Laws...

[Pete Ebbink]

Well here is the list of governmental paperwork you need to buy C&R's in CA-State...what a pain in the a**...

1. C&R type 03 license from the federal BATF. No problem; $ 35.00 and good for 3 years...

2. In CA-State you then need a Certificate of Elgibility (COE). Local police department takes your fingerprints (2-sets), and you send CA-State $ 18.00, good for one year. Yearly renewal is $ 18.00 and does not need more fingerprints. This COE establishes you are "worthy" of owning a gun.

3. Last year CA-State then required a Basic Handgun Safety Certificate, before you can buy any gun. It was a $ 25.00 fee, you took a 25-30 question test about common sense gun safety and gun laws. This certificate was good for a lifetime, and if you were a discharged veteran or had a valid hunting license, the fee was waived but you still took the test.

Now this year (2003) a new Handgun Safety Certificate (HSC) is required. Those holding the older certificate from last year were not "grandfathered" in. You pay another $ 25.00 and take another test of 30 questions about safety and laws. But this new HSC is good only for 5 years and no one is grandfathered in, not even veterans.

4. When you buy a C&R pistol out-of state and have it brought into CA-State, you have 5 days to "register" it with the CA-DOJ firearms division and pay $ 14.00 for this registration. If you do more than one gun at the same time, the per gun fee drops to $ 10.00...

5. In-state sales between two holders of C&R licences are not allowed. As a matter of fact, no private party sales of any handguns is allowed within the State without going through a type 01 FFL holder...who do the instant-checks and all the paperwork and collect State fees and the transfer dealer fee.

<img border="0" title="" alt="[Eek!]" src="eek.gif" /> WHAT THE HECK WILL BE NEXT....???!!!! <img border="0" title="" alt="[Eek!]" src="eek.gif" />

P.S. Enough to entice this novice collector to move out-of-state... <img border="0" alt="[cheers]" title="" src="graemlins/beerchug.gif" />

Regards,

Pete... <img border="0" alt="[typing]" title="" src="graemlins/yltype.gif" />