British "non-immigrant" resident, legal question

[Kevinsmith121]

Hi there all,

I have been living in CA now for about 18 months and a friend of mine introduced me to our local shooting range in Concord yesterday and I had a very good time.

I want to investigate getting myself a .22 rifle to get me going, along with all the needed extras, a safe for the house etc. But my first question is a legal "gun ownership" one.

I am British and living and working the US on a L1 "non-immigrant" visa, so I am not a US citizen. Someone at the range who seemed to know some details suggested I would need to get the CA Hunters Licence and then that should be ok, but his best advice was that some of the Gun stores may not know the law, and might sell me a gun illegally without either the store or me knowing better. Can anyone recommend the best way to find out?

Many thanks, Kevin.

[SCMA-1]

Hi Kevin,

all your firearms legality questions can be answered here at the California Department of Justice Firearms Division website:

http://caag.state.ca.us/firearms/index.html

Specifically, this should answer your particular situation (see question/answer #3):

http://ag.ca.gov/firearms/pubfaqs.php#7

SCMA-1

[elSquid]

Federal rules:

http://www.atf.gov/firearms/faq/faq2.htm#r

-- Michael

[caoboy]

I do believe you need to be a permanent resident.

[cmonk518]

You HAVE to be a permanent resident with the US and fully residing in the US and nowhere else. No exceptions. Even Olympic shooting teams and international shooters who have full exemptions on purchasing and transporting firearms must buy their weapons from their own respective countries and travel abroad with them. Even those have 30-90 day restrictions, so in your case, you are pretty much sh*t out of luck. You can probably apply for full PR status but I know as of now, there is a 5-7 waiting period from the time you apply (unless you marry an American citizen) and they definitely give priority to those who have already been in-country for many years. The fact you have only been here for 18 months, you probably have to go thru huge amounts of paperwork and fees.

[halifax]

This from elSquid's link above