Moving to California!

[C-dub]

I've lived in CA and NY. Both are beautiful states, but I have no plans to ever return to either. There are too many other beautiful states that don't strip me of my freedom.

[Scott in Houston]

I've lived in CA and NY. Both are beautiful states, but I have no plans to ever return to either. There are too many other beautiful states that don't strip me of my freedom.

One word for me... if not Texas then...

Wyoming

[JALLEN]

You never said where in Kalifornia you're moving to. Its a big state after all and attitudes vary wildly depending on where you are. I lived there for 35 years until I moved here. 34 in the Los Angeles area and 1 up in the Bay area. Those two cities are vastly different in terms of attitude of the populace. LEO attitude is about the same though. Rural central California is fairly firearm friendly with many counties practically shall issue.

For all the stupid laws there are a lot of grandfathered "assault rifles" and over 10 round magazines. No one asks any questions at the ranges I've been to.

The urban areas, SF, LA, OC and SD are where most of the people and most of the weirdness is. The "cow counties" to the east are closer to what some of us regard as normal. In a number of those counties, the Sheriff is all but shall issue. Trouble is, nobody lives out there.

As far as the assault rifle nuttiness, it may be true that no one asks questions at a range, for the most part, all it takes is for one to be asked at an inopportune time and it's no more guns forever. Besides all you have to do is equip your evil black rifle with a magazine lock, so that it requires a tool to detach the magazine and you are good to go. It's absolutely silly, but what here isn't, really? I am planning to de-neuter mine when I move to Texas. All it will take is replacing the special magazine locks with standard parts. The ten round magazine thing is serious, too. They will attract attention, and here again, if the wrong person asks and you don't have the right answers, no more guns forever!

One thing I would do is buy up as many handguns not on the DOJ approved list as you can afford. Such popular guns as the HK45 and 45C cannot be sold at retail in California although LEOs can buy them. If the LEO sells his to a civilian, it is legal to own although it cannot be listed on one's concealed permits, or carried, the few of us who have them. A resident of another state who acquires such a gun out of state then moves here can still bring it in and own it, or sell it etc. You could sell those guns for a premium once you are a resident here. I bought an HK45 from a LEO awhile back, loved the pistol, but decided when I made the decision to move back to Texas not to take a now legal to own gun in California out. I put it for sale on CalGuns and set off a bidding war within 4 hours!

Remember the idiotic transfer rules here too. All transfers have to be through an FFL; there is a ten day wait. You meet your buyer at the FFL, do all the paperwork, get the money, the FFL keeps the gun, then assuming the buyer is approved, he can pick it up after ten days. The ten days means ten days from the time the transfer is logged into the DOJ system, not less than ten days, to the minute! Also, the buyer has to have a handgun safety certification within the last 5 years.

Sorry to hear about you move. Enjoy the weather! Women tend to show quite a bit more skin here typically than in other places, so you have that to take your mind off your other troubles.

[johnson0317]

Talk about how stupidity can get you in a heap of trouble, and how, by the Grace of God, I have avoided it. I have no idea what the gun laws were in California back in 1989. I did a 15 month, travelling nurse assignment, in San Jose at the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center. I had a little Sentry keyed safe, and I took my Ruger 9mm any my S&W .38 special. Both were fully loaded while I travelled there, and on the way back out. I have no doubt that I would have got my rear into a wringer if I had been stopped.

The current laws for California, and the states close to it, have kept me from going back to visit. I even declined to go to a conference in California because I am not going to be stripped of my right to carry like that (and the conference, at a 5 star hotel, was fully paid for...as well as the flight out there).

RJ

[tommyg]

I would think twice about a safe deposit box for storing suppressors
The Fed can get into a safe deposit too easily with a little paper work

If you can change your mind about going to Calfiornia do it

I went there once on a busisness trip the only thing I liked about it was

[T Bone]

Hey Guys,

Thanks for the responses....

If I do move, I am putting the bullet button on my AR, MP5 (Semi) etc.... The rules are just insane. The "Featureless" ARs look goofy as Tom Brady with long hair..... It is the Bullet Button!

I do plan to do a last buy of pistols not available in retail in California..... :)

[Dave2]

Hey Guys,

Thanks for the responses....

If I do move, I am putting the bullet button on my AR

Make sure you use an Off-List Lower (OLL) as well... Since the lower receiver is legally "the gun", and CA's laws specifically ban all AR-15s, you have to get an AR-15 that isn't on the list of AR-15s. I think anything made by Bushmaster and probably Colt are right out, but others just had certain part #s banned. Companies that were lucky enough to have not been put under the blanket ban just have to change part #s and their AR-15s that they legally market and advertise as AR-15s in CA are, legally speaking, within CA, not AR-15s (even though they are). Since the same law that created the list also prohibits modification of the list, you can rest assured your "not an AR-15" AR-15 will never be an AR-15 in CA (even though it is everywhere else in the universe).

"Land of the fruits and the nuts" doesn't even begin to describe it...

[JALLEN]

Very good advice. We've had a problem with even legal EBRs here, as most cops don't know which are legal and which are not. If you have the bad luck to be observed by one who doesn't really know, and it turns out your particular gun is one of the banned ones, you are in a heap of trouble, no more guns forever. They'll hop on you like a hobo on a ham sandwich over stuff like this.

Check it out on Calguns.net, just to make absolutely, positively certain you are in the clear. Take no chances with this.

I would postpone buying one, if that is one of the choices until you get here. Then buy one here, build it up yourself. It's so easy even a lawyer can do it, and one of the most thrilling things that can happen is taking your homemade rifle to the range and have it go "Bang!" the first time. You may have to get the taxidermist to wipe the silly grin off your face, but hey, it's all in good fun, right?