Are you allowed to have a detachable magazine on a semi-auto rifle

[johnrunner89]

PC 12276.1(a)(2)

Penal Code 12276.1
(a) Notwithstanding Section 12276, "assault weapon" shall also mean any of the following:
(1) A semiautomatic, centerfire rifle that has the capacity to accept a detachable magazine and any one of the following:
(A) A pistol grip that protrudes conspicuously beneath the action of the weapon.
(B) A thumbhole stock.
(C) A folding or telescoping stock.
(D) A grenade launcher or flare launcher.
(E) A flash suppressor.
(F) A forward pistol grip.
(2) A semiautomatic, centerfire rifle that has a fixed magazine with the capacity to accept more than 10 rounds.
(3) A semiautomatic, centerfire rifle that has an overall length of less than 30 inches.

ahhh I see I overlooked that. Thanks for the heads up.

[Greg-Dawg]

New avatar greg? nice.

Self portrait honey bunch.

[aplinker]

My short write-up on how to make a compliant rifle:

This write-up is meant to describe how to avoid building a legal receiver as a type-3 assault weapon.

As such, it assumes you're not building on a receiver listed in the original Roberti-Roos (type 1) list or the Kasler list (type 2). Listing is now required for type 2 AW (series) by the Harrot case and the Kasler list is now static, due to DOJ giving up that right.

That leaves type 3 AWs. By not falling under the classifications by features listed in the penal code we're able to build our guns to be legally compliant and not considered an AW. This goes for any rifle type - if it doesn't fall into type 1, 2 or 3 and is not a 50BMG rifle.

Here's the 1st section:

12276.1. (a) Notwithstanding Section 12276,
"assault weapon" shall also mean any of the following:
(1) A semiautomatic, centerfire rifle that has the
capacity to accept a detachable magazine and any one of
the following:
(A) A pistol grip that protrudes conspicuously
beneath the action of the weapon.
(B) A thumbhole stock.
(C) A folding or telescoping stock.
(D) A grenade launcher or flare launcher.
(E) A flash suppressor.
(F) A forward pistol grip.

What this says is that, assuming the gun is not an AW by 12276 (i.e., listed by make and model) it can still be an AW if it has any features and is built adhering to the definition given.

The 1st sentence contains 3 conditions: the rifle is semi-automatic, centerfire and with a detachable magazine. The 4th condition is having any (or all) of the features listed. To build an assault weapon by features the rifle must contain all conditions from the first sentence (semi-auto, centerfire and detachable mags) along with at least one of the features listed.

This gives us 4 ways to avoid having an assault weapon, as avoiding any one of these 4 conditions prevents meeting this definition of type-3 assault weapon.

Thus, most of the guns you see here are built either:
S1.) Having no features listed above (MMG, U-15, M1A, Saiga)
S2.) Using a bullet button (or Prince50, JumboPandaLock, Raddlock, JJPerl) to lock the magazine in place, thus allowing the rifle to have those features.
S3.) Building the rifle for .22lr (notice the definition says centerfire)
S4.) A gas system that doesn't operate (bolt-action repeater instead of semi-auto)

Lastly, there are conditions that must be met for the above types of rifles:

12276.1. (a) Notwithstanding Section 12276,
"assault weapon" shall also mean any of the following:
(1) A semiautomatic..... (snip)
(2) A semiautomatic, centerfire rifle that has a
fixed magazine with the capacity to accept more than 10
rounds.
(3) A semiautomatic, centerfire rifle that has an
overall length of less than 30 inches.

Now it's important to match these two additional conditions where they have relevance.

12276.1(a)-2 only applies to a fixed magazine rifle (S2 types from above - bullet button, SKS, etc) types. It requires that the magazine used only be 10rds or less. Thus, it only applies to our non-detachable magazine varieties. All other types can have any capacity available to them* (see below) Styles S1, S3 and S4 would not fall under this requirement and would be allowed to use those magazines.

12276.1(a)-3 only applies to semi-auto centerfire rifles. This includes both featureless and fixed-magazine rifles (S1 and S2 from above). That means they would need to be over 30" OAL (when measured with the stock collapsed or folded by CA court case law). Both styles of rifles that are non-semi-auto repeater (S4) or rimfire (S3) would only fall under california's definition for needing all long guns over 26" (with stock folded or collapsed).

Lastly, the rifle can not be capable of chambering the 50BMG cartridge, as described in 12278.



That concludes ALL possible ways to make a rifle (not pistol or shotgun) in California.