New California Law Restricts FFL to FFL Gun Shipments Starting July 1st
This is important news for wholesalers, gunsmiths, and FFLs who ship firearms to California. Starting July 1st, 2008, FFLs wishing to send a firearm to a California FFL must first register with the California Dept. of Justice (CA DOJ), submit the details of the transaction(s), and then wait for the CA DOJ to issue a “Firearms Shipment Approval” letter. The letter must be enclosed within the gun shipment and the receiving FFL in California must retain the letter for three (3) years. Curios and relics are exempt, but otherwise this applies to all firearms — handguns, rifles, and shotguns.
To obtain approval, the shipping FFL must have the California FFL’s five-digit Centralized List number and fill out an application and provide the invoice number and quantity of long guns and handguns to be shipped. The application process will be available to FFLs online and via facsimile or telephone once the FFL is enrolled in the CFLC program. NOTE: This law only imposes burdens on FFLs. It is still legal for a private party in another state to ship a gun to a California FFL-holder (if the shipper otherwise complies with Federal law).
Bad Law Applies Even to Intra-State Shipments
The Democrat-controlled California Legislature has produced some bad gun laws before, but this is one of the worst ever. It is extremely burdensome. An FFL wishing to ship guns to California must obtain an approval letter with EVERY shipment. This law even applies to a California-based FFL wishing to ship in-state to another California FFL. The new regulations are administered as the “California Firearms Licensee Check System (CFLC)“, authorized by AB 2521, a terrible piece of legislation signed into law by Gov. Schwarzenegger in 2006.
CA DOJ’s official summary of the CFLC system:
“As of July 1, 2008, California Penal Code Section 12072(f)(1) prohibits all Federal Firearms Licensees (FFLs), other than Type 03 or 06 FFLs, from shipping firearms to an FFL in California unless, prior to delivery, the FFL intending to deliver, sell or transfer the firearms obtains a verification approval number from the California Department of Justice (CADOJ) Bureau of Firearms. This includes transfers that occur at gun shows.
The verification approval number, which the Bureau of Firearms provides in a Firearms Shipment Approval letter, confirms that the intended recipient of the firearm shipment is properly licensed and listed in the state’s database of persons/entities authorized to receive firearm shipments. If the intended CA FFL recipient is not listed in the state’s database, the transaction will result in a Do Not Ship letter, and it is a crime for the intended recipient to receive the firearms (Penal Code Section 12083(c)(1)).
As a courtesy to impacted FFLs, the Bureau of Firearms has established an Internet application that is available to FFLs nationwide 24 hours a day 7 days a week (24/7) to obtain Firearms Shipment Approval letters. All Internet transactions will be handled on a secure server, and the information provided will be used solely for the purposes associated with the administration of the CFLC program. For FFLs that do not have Internet access, the Bureau has established a telephone service that allows nationwide FFL shippers to enroll and obtain Firearms Shipment Approval letters via telephone or facsimile prior to shipping firearms to a California FFL. However, the telephone service availability will be limited to Monday through Friday 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Pacific Standard Time.
California FFL holders (other than Type 03 or 06) must enroll in the California Firearms Licensee Check (CFLC) Program to ship firearms to another California FFL. They must also be listed on the State of California Centralized List as either a dealer, manufacturer, or exempt. Once enrolled in CFLC, California FFLs will be able to obtain Firearms Shipment Approval letters to ship firearms to other FFL holders within the state.
For additional information regarding this new program, please refer to our CFLC Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs).”
CLICK HERE for GENERAL INFO and LINKS
New System Imposes Useless Red Tape
The author of AB 2521, CA Assemblyman Dave Jones, claims the new system is designed to “protect the consumer” by ensuring gun shipments are not sent to recipients whose Federal Licenses are not in good standing. That, of course is nonsense. Current Federal law already requires a shipping FFL to confirm that the shipment’s recipient has a valid license. No, the real purpose of the new law is to impose a wall of red tape blocking gun shipments to California. The new law has already had a chilling effect. We’ve seen notices on gun auction boards from dealers stating: “Due to new regulations, we will NOT ship this firearm to California.”
New Law Needs to Be Challenged
On its face, California’s new Approval Letter System probably cannot withstand legal scrutiny if it is challenged in court. First, insofar as it regulates and changes the record-keeping duties of Federal Firearms License holders, the CFLC should be 100% pre-empted by Federal Law. California is adding an additional layer of duties and responsiblities on FFLs in OTHER STATES, and then imposing criminal penalties if California’s new rules aren’t followed to the letter. Avoiding this kind of mess is precisely why we have uniform federal regulation in the first place. In addition, the California law may be Constitutionally invalid as a restraint on interstate commerce. We hope the NRA or NSSF immediately challenges California’s Firearms Licensee Check System.
Looks like a heck of a good start to firearm registration to me. Another step in the Liberal’s attempt to take over society. Be a terrible thing if they had to be vividly reminded at some point why we are not living under English rule these days. I have a “friend” in NYC who equates guns with terrorism. Those of us who know better wonder how the fact of equating guns with freedom ever became so obscure.
Although I do not live in California I am outraged by the attempts of the California State Government and DOJ to disarm its populace. I am writing a strong letter to the NRA and the GOA concerning this but since I do not live there I’m not sure how much weight that letter will hold.
Thank CA’s firearms retailers for this puppy — scuttlebutt is they pushed for it as an anticompetitive measure to keep out cheaper non-CA retailers.
EDITOR: I haven’t heard this. If there is any truth in it, the CA retailers may find themselves harmed too. Why? Well CA retailers still have to source their retail firearms products from wholesalers, 90% of whom are located out of state. The new restrictions apply to all FFLs, including FFL-holding wholesalers. If the CA Retailers can’t get product to sell, then where are they??
I think I’m done with California in the way of tourism or buisiness, they have officially joined my boycott list. I’ll also be watching to avoid purchasing produce grown there whenever possible . I’d encourage everyone to do the same in an effort to send a message!
IF the people of California do not have the guts to stand up and fight for there rights so be it, and boys and girls the fight is about to begin. Stand up now and let it be known that this is not acceptable.Get that Dam GOV. S out of there and please don’t vacation in IDAHO, Montana or Wy. It just make us sick every time we see that L Plate ! also MOVE TO SOMEWHERE ELSE YOU ARE NOT WELCOME !!
Maybe it’s time for the firearm manufacturers and wholesalers to do what Barrett has done in response to the .50 BMG ban – refuse to do business with California law enforcement agencies.
Some of you righteous folks in places like MT, ID, AK, or WY might tone down the rhetoric a bit and consider this: your states receive quite a bit more money from Washington than they supply in taxes. Who’s helping to pay your bills, build your roads, schools, etc? Why it’s people in CA, NJ, NY, MA. So calm down a little, and [consider the big picture] before bashing others.
I have purchased the last firearm I will ever purchase while living in this state (CA). It is nothing but re-barreling from this point on (until I move). The FFL holder I know is looking for nothing but trouble from this legislation.
Being a former resident of CA, I know how constricting the firearm laws are, but this is horridly ridiculous. First, they make everyone take a lame handgun test and “demonstrate” they know how to properly operate a handgun, which must be renewed every 5 years. One must also pay a department of justice fee with each firearm purchased. Sounds like excuses to make money, if you ask me. Now, FFL’s must run through fields of landmines and barbed wire to get a their “permission slip” signed. WTF. I’m sure most, if not all non-CA (and in state CA FFL’s) won’t bother running through the gauntlet to transfer firearms in this matter. Communist CA will soon be a state where “the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed” won’t exist anymore. The criminals will still have their firearms, but the good citizens won’t. At some point, home defense will consist of throwing stones at intruders….
This law coming from the man who made a career of killing people in movies. The “Loaded-Chamber Indicator Law” was bad enough, but this is inexcuseable. I live Ca., and it’s hard enough as it is to purchase any kind of guns where I live. Gun stores are banned in my city and it’s illegal to get ammo shipped to me. Now I can’t purchase guns online becaue no FFL is going to want to deal with this hassle. This is where my tax money keeps going?
Re Bill Carrel’s comments:
Gun-owning Californians are by far in the minority in the Golden State, and unable to control the overwhelming number of naive and brain-dead irrational liberals who run things, whether by voting or any other means. Antagonizing and insulting us does no good for the cause of retaining what freedoms Americans still retain. Get with the program. We are all on the same side on this issue.
EDITOR: I would also note that, due to the Democratic Party’s extreme jerrymandering of electoral districts, conservative voters have been, de facto, disenfranchised statewide. District lines have been drawn so Democrat Assembly and State Senate candidates basically need only cater to the left. Most gun law votes come down to straight party-line votes. Until fair districting is restored to California, it will be very difficult for Republican voters to block bad legislation. And even when radical leftish legislation IS successfully challenged by public referendum, the California Supreme Court has seen fit to negate the public will. This has happened with referenda on illegal immigration, gay marriage etc.
If you look at the election map for 2004 you will discover that only three counties control the whole of California (Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento). The rest of the counties are “red”. So the rest of California is held hostage by these three, urban, liberal counties.
–former CA / LA area resident
Didn’t the US supreme court JUST rule that this sort of thing is unconstitutional? this sort of act (right after that ruling)is just the thing that should be criminal – some representative in California need to do some prison time, really. that would probably be the ONLY thing that would teach them… It is high time we (the people of this country) start holding elected officials responsible for their actions – on an extreem measure, too.
This is just repulsive and for myself, a lifetime California resident, the last straw! Sunshine State here I come! The most disturbing aspect to this lunacy is that I agree with the earlier entree that the Gun Shop Dealers in the State likely had a great deal to do with it’s passage to eliminate competition. This is even in spite of the fact that all the items I’m interesting in collecting are no longer in production and thus wouldn’t pass the so called “drop test”.
The other factor, as I’m sure you are all aware, is the lack of taxibility of these items due to the above and since the State is essentially bankrupt, they want to eliminate any non-taxable items they can and instead make it a criminal offence to obtain such items so they may enforce outrageous fines to make up the State deficit.
I don’t see things getting better here in terms of quality of life overall and the raging libralism has made it all but unlivable for the sane residents here that want to legally enjoy and collect guns.
Thank goodness I live in Alabama and dont have to deal with all the dumbass idiots.
I have always viewed California as a festering wound that is spreading across the country!!
And we wonder why LA is having a very serious firearm crime? *with a very sarcastic tone*
On the serious note: with the new president elect, this can be a nation wide problem instead of CA’s problems.
So, we need a solution here.
Here’s my proposal:
Remember how, Dr. Kinsey challenged the society’s perception with his study?
For the record: I’m by no mean condoning his research method, nor his research subject.
But the point is: we can do the same thing with our right.
Instead of relying solely on the 2nd amendment, we need to bring in more “ammunition” backed with some real hard scientific data to fight the liberal with.
I am very curious to know the crime statistic in the “Jewelry District” where every other person’s packing; how about comparing it to the rest of the state.
How about doing this study at the similar district in NY, IL, MA, DC as well.
How about interviewing the liberal as well, find out the reason for their hatred toward firearm, and why do they try their best to take our right away?
Maybe you can even interview that hypocrite CA governor and the people of Hollywood; why do they try so hard selling their movies by lining them with firearms and explosions; yet in the real life they campaign against gun ownership.
How about interviewing the convicts as well – like what one of the 20/20 host did in 2007.
Find out from them how they obtained their weapons, how easy it was to get the guns, how they target their victim, what scared them, etc.
Let’s look at Japan & England, how their “gun free” societies are dealing with the armed criminals? Perhaps we can learn something from them. Also, how about Russia, China and the rest of the EU?
How about Mexico? You have a great research here.
How the drug cartels can roam free murdering the residents of the border town by the thousands; and practically rendering the government useless in enforcing the law in their territory. What if the residents were armed? would they be able to defend their town in this lawless condition?
Also, someone can contact Canada, they just abandoned their firearm registry database recently. I believed they claimed it didn’t work. But why didn’t it work, that would be a great research.
I’d do the study myself, but I just don’t have the time and money to do it.
I need to feed my family; while this research is dire to my heart, but I wouldn’t be able to feed my family with it.
This would be a great research study for NRA.
It’s about time for NRA to back their arguments with hardcore comprehensive scientific data.
Maybe, just maybe, some of the liberal lawmakers would see it our way.
Full disclosure:
I live in LA, BUT I’ve been wanting to move out of this state; as soon as I find job out of this state of course.
Well, I just went looking to buy a Smith & Wesson 4006TSW on gunbrokers.com and discovered that most will not sell to Californians. Haven’t bought handguns for several years and did not know about the letter requirement. I just wanted to say thanks to all of those FFL dealers who won’t help us here in California.
You have played into the hands of those who want to restrict gun ownership in this nation, they start here and move across the nation. I checked the website and they have 24hr web access and telephone support. They ask for no more information than the Feds already have. Charge for the hassels, but don’t cut us off.
We have been fighting this liberal anti-gun Democratically controlled state for years while the rest of you stand by and do nothing. Well, we are all in OBAMA land now and he has appointed an Attorney General who will make the USA gun laws mirror California or worse. Remember….United We Stand, Divided We Fall…..
An NRA life Member.
This just angers me. I am a Californian and I just want to reasonably buy some had guns. It is utterly bonkers what the law states. I don’t see any hard core conspiracies afoot, but certainly these laws are a bit irrational. I know California cops had a lot of firepower to contend with, but were all those guns which they had to fight against bought legally anyway?
I just want a replica of the 1911 my grandfather carried so I can protect myself and go shooting. Does it have to be this insane?
I am moving to Nevada.
Kalifornia’s “elected officials” are often on television saying that the are passing laws that will be an example for the rest of the country to follow. Thank the lord that those of us out here in the “rest of the country” are right minded and aspire to avoid the errors and the misstatements of those Kalifornia offficials. –Wishing we could set Kalifornia adrift in the Pacific–
I unfortunately live in LA, will be moving out of this god awful state as soon as a position opens up.
I am ashamed to admit I live here, the wife and I have been thinking Colorado for a while now. May have to go look at properties.
Bill,
Who needs enemies when you’ve got friends like you? Unfortunately, not everyone has the funds, time, or ability to leave the state in which they reside, simply because the political ball is the other team’s court—at the moment. You sound like the French Jews who sneered at their German cousins ….and then cowered in shame when the Vichy came from them, too. So, until the back begins rolling back toward the side of liberty (doubtful, but possible), why don’t you … try offering some encouragement—to those of us unlucky enough to be stuck here in Nazi Kalifornia.
Jeff
[Edited for content]
Hey, Bill Carrell! This is what I was talking about. Intelligetn, pragmatic, workable solutions. No need to try and bankrupt the farmers for the tyrannical behavior of our unremovable politicians.
Thanks, Mike T. It’s nice to know that there are still plenty of gunowners out there who aren’t bustin their own teeth out with their knee-jerk reactions.
Onward and upward!
Jeff
55 years I lived in that state and watched it go nothing but down hill – – In that time I sent a lot of money (taxes) to Sacramento… Hey, I retired there (53) ! I built my house, just the way I wanted there ! I was willing to spend my $$ there, I would finish my life there BUT then the state of California said to me — that 1/4 of all the guns I had legally bought and registered in the state are now illegal…. The key word here is registered! What a FOOL I was… I was sent a letter and told of the guns I had and which ones California NOW deems as Illegal, with their stupid ass laws… I was told, I can’t even sell them, I must remove them from the state or turn them in. AND MAYBE there might be some compensation — Yeah and I got a bridge I want to sell you. I wrote a bunch of letters stating my clean record and all of my top secret security clearances and I feel that if anyone deserved to be grandfathered in, it would be me, after all I had legally bought and registered them in this state… The form letters I received back were a total joke… Oh My gosh, do I sound bitter, I’m sorry…
Well I packed up all my guns and all my money 8 years ago and left…. I’m so so happy I left if just for one reason alone – – is that the people back here are just great…( and they all speak English ) they realize the more taxes you give a politicians the more they will piss away… If they even mention raising taxes around here or screwing around with any gun laws, forget running in the next election that politician might not live to see it.. Believe me when I tell you I just love it here…I shoot out my back door when ever what ever I want…. One time I went back for a 3-day class reunion. I was defiantly ready to leave the state 1 hour after I arrived when I got into a argument with a gas station owner. Oh Well Thank You Calif — for letting me leave……. Art
Edited for coarse language
I live here in the great state of california. I have come to the conclusion that it is a suburb of old Germany the one behind the wall. I live in a small rural area and I dont even have the right to let a visitor stay in my RV for the weekend. I just barely have the right to park it in my yard. I own a 9mil that was given to me by my father. Il be damned if i register it so that later they can take it away, let alone accuse me if there is any shootings with a 9mil in my area. I want to purchase a mosin-nagant but the ones here have been nuetered by having the bayonet removed and other things. [Edited.]
What a crock of red tape, Federal law allows for the shipment of firearms from and unlicensed person to a FFL in another state but this law requires a letter from the state for FFL to FFL. Tell me again how this is a good law and supposed to help something other stopping out of state dealers from doing business with customers in California. This is my first and last shipment to California, why do the voters do this to themselves.
h Well Thank You Calif — for letting me leave……. Art