Traffic Misdemeanors?

[ts]

Does a traffic misdemeanor stop you from owning a hand gun in CA, just out of curiosity.

Tony

[kantstudien]

1) This should probably be in the legal section, not handgun section since it pertains to all firearms purchases, not just handguns.

2) You cannot purchase any firearm without a valid CA driver's license. If your license is suspensed or revoked, then your DROS will be rejected.

3) If your traffic misdemeanor causes your license to be invalidated, then you cannot buy any firearms.

4) A CA ID card can also be used to buy a firearm, but since it is linked by the DMV to your driving records, your DROS would probably be rejected should your driver's license be found invalid.

[Knauga]

You only need to have valid ID showing that you are a resident of the state of California. A California ID card is sufficient. Having traffic tickets will not prevent you from buying a handgun. A California ID is not linked to your driving record, it is only remotely linked to driving because they are issued through the DMV.

[scootergmc]

no......

[XDshooter]

The prohibiting misdemeanors are violence related ones.

[leelaw]

That party-wrecking JBT give you another fix-it ticket?

[hitnrun]

The below list is accurate as of 3/01. As I unerstand it, several additions have been made since, however, none of them are vehicle code related as far as I know.

STATE OF CALIFORNIA
LIST OF PROHIBITED MISDEMEANORS

Pursuant to Penal Code (PC) Section 12021(c)(1), any person who has been convicted of a misdemeanor
violation for any of the following offenses is prohibited from owning, possessing, or having under his or her
custody or control any firearms within 10 years of the conviction:

• Threatening public officers, employees, and school officials (71 PC).
• Threatening certain public officers, appointees, judges, staff or their families with the intent and apparent
ability to carry out the threat (76 PC).
• Intimidating witnesses or victims (136.1 PC).
• Possessing a deadly weapon with the intent to intimidate a witness (136.5 PC).
• Threatening witnesses, victims, or informants (140 PC).
• Attempting to remove or take a firearm from the person or immediate presence of a public or peace officer
(148 (d) PC).
• Unauthorized possession of a weapon in a courtroom. Courthouse, or court building, or at a public meeting
(171bPC).
• Bringing into or possessing a loaded firearm within the state capitol, legislative offices, etc. (171 PC).
• Taking into or possessing loaded firearms within the Governor’s Mansion or residence of other constitutional
officers, etc. (171dPC).
• Supplying, selling or giving possession of a firearm to a person for participation in criminal street gangs
(186.28 PC)
• Assault (240 PC, 241 PC).
• Battery (242 PC, 243 PC).
• Assault with a stun gun or taser weapon (244.5 PC).
• Assault with deadly weapon or force likely to produce great bodily injury (245 PC).
• Assault with a deadly weapon or instrument; by any means likely to produce great bodily injury or with a stun
gun or taser on a school employee engaged in performance of duties (245.5 PC).
• Shooting at an inhabited or occupied dwelling house, building, vehicle, aircraft, housecar or camper (246
PC).
• Discharging a firearm in a grossly negligent manner (246.3 PC).
• Shooting at an occupied aircraft, motor vehicle, or uninhabited building or dwelling house (247 PC).
• Inflicting corporal injury on a spouse or significant other (273.5 PC).
• Wilfully violating a domestic protective order (273.6 PC).
• Drawing, exhibiting, or using deadly weapon other than a firearm (417 (a)(1)PC, 417(a)(2) PC).
• Brandishing a firearm in presence of a peace officer (417.1 PC).
• Drawing or exhibiting, selling, manufacturing, or distributing firearm replicas or imitations (417.2 PC).
• Inflicting serious bodily injury as a result of brandishing (417.6 PC).
• Making threats to commit a crime which will result in death or great bodily injury to another person (422 PC).
• Bringing into or possessing firearms upon or within public schools and grounds (626.9 PC).
• Stalking (646.9 PC).
• Armed criminal action (12023 PC).
• Possessing a deadly weapon with intent to commit an assault (12024 PC).
• Driver of any vehicle who knowingly permits another person to discharge a firearm from the vehicle or any
person who willfully and maliciously discharges a firearm from a motor vehicle (12034(b) or (d) PC).
• Criminal possession of a firearm (12040 PC).
• Firearms dealer who sells or transfers or gives possession of a any firearm to a minor or a handgun to a
person under the age of 21 (12072 (b) PC).
• Various violations involving sales and transfers of firearms (12072 (g)(3) PC).
• Person or corporation who sells any concealable firearm to any minor (former 12100 (a) PC).
• Unauthorized possession/transportation of a machine gun (12220 PC).
• Possession of ammunition designed to penetrate metal or armor (12320 PC).
• Carrying a concealed or loaded firearm or other deadly weapon or wearing a peace officer uniform while
picketing (12590 PC).
• Bringing firearm related contraband into juvenile hall (871.5 WIC).
• Bringing firearm related contraband into a youth authority institution (1001.5 WIC)
• Purchase, possession, or receipt of a firearm or deadly weapon by a person receiving in-patient treatment for
a mental disorder, or by a person who has communicated to a licensed psychotherapist a serious threat of
physical violence against an identifiable victim (8100 WIC).
• Providing a firearm or deadly weapon to a person described in WIC 8100 or 8103 (8101 WIC).
• Purchase, possession, or receipt of a firearm or deadly weapon by a person who has been adjudicated to be
a mentally disordered sex offender or found to be mentally incompetent to stand trial, or not guilty by reason
of insanity, and individuals placed under conservatorship (8103 WIC).
March 2001

Don't say a cop has never helped you out.

[CALI-gula]

This one should be removed from this list - it doesn't present an element of violence or criminal tendencies, and makes little sense especially in this state, with it being an acceptable by-product of prop-houses and use within the entertainment industry so infused with the need for such props. Any of the following could apply to a film set where props are in use: exhibiting, selling, manufacturing, or distributing firearm replicas or imitations. Either there is more to this than is shown here for this part of the law, or it needs better clarification. I know many people that would be found guilty under this law.

.

[ts]

The below list is accurate as of 3/01. As I unerstand it, several additions have been made since, however, none of them are vehicle code related as far as I know.




Don't say a cop has never helped you out.

Thank ya! (I imagine you tipping a a sheriffs hat to me while chewing on a thing of straw, just kidding)

[Quiet]

• Drawing or exhibiting, selling, manufacturing, or distributing firearm replicas or imitations (417.2 PC).

This one should be removed from this list - it doesn't present an element of violence or criminal tendencies, and makes little sense especially in this state, with it being an acceptable by-product of prop-houses and use within the entertainment industry so infused with the need for such props. Any of the following could apply to a film set where props are in use: exhibiting, selling, manufacturing, or distributing firearm replicas or imitations. Either there is more to this than is shown here for this part of the law, or it needs better clarification. I know many people that would be found guilty under this law.

417.2(b)2 PC exempts lawfull use in theatrical productions, including motion pictures, television and stage productions.

[kantstudien]

kantstudien; just because you lose your right to drive doesn't mean you lose your right to own guns!

Hmmm... you do have a point, but people with suspended licenses get their DROSes rejected by DOJ. So if you had an invalid CA Driver's License, but used your CA ID card for the DROS process, then you would theoretically be okay?

[CALI-gula]

417.2(b)2 PC exempts lawfull use in theatrical productions, including motion pictures, television and stage productions.

Thanks for citing that - I'll go look at the full details of that portion of the law in a minute.

But it should not be regulated to that use alone. Art for art's sake, if I wish to make a detailed model replica of a 1906 Luger or even a Glock 19, I should be more than able to do so, and exhibit it (obviously not in unreasonable areas like a post-office or bank) or simply admire it from afar, and sell it to whomever I wish, so long as they are 18 or older. It's not a firearm and I am not encouraging, inciting, or taking part in any criminal activity (except for this particular law apparently) - this concerns me more from a 1st Amendment angle rather than a 2nd Amendment aspect.

Are there arguments for keeping the law in place? Could it make sense in certain situations? Maybe, but the violation of it should not prevent one from buying a firearm.

There should be a catalyst action in combination WITH this law, of some other violent or criminal act, to require the enforcement of this replica/imitation law. I have a REAL chainsaw in my garage at home, and it can be used to do a whole lot more REAL violence that any replica gun I might make. Yet nobody is calling my using the chainsaw on Sundays in my exhibitionistic display of trimming my yard a misdemeanor that might prevent me from buying a firearm

.

[bwiese]

Hmmm... you do have a point, but people with suspended licenses get their DROSes rejected by DOJ. So if you had an invalid CA Driver's License, but used your CA ID card for the DROS process, then you would theoretically be okay?

Yep. As long as no other coloring issues like outstanding traffic warrants.

A suspended DL is invalid; there's no halfway mark - the "it's good for ID but not for driving" concept doesn't fly. [Actually, when your license is suspended you're supposed to turn send it back to DMV, I believe.]

But if you have an ID card in that situation, go DROS that new Sig.

[ts]

So if they have a drivers licenses and say, got a DUI or some other driving misdemeanor a year or so back, they can still own a gun in CA?

Mods: Feel free to move this in General Gun Discussion - my mistake.

[bwiese]

So if they have a drivers licenses and say, got a DUI or some other driving misdemeanor a year or so back, they can still own a gun in CA?

Yep. Simple DUI charges, even resulting in loss of license, will not affect gun ownership.

But for a gun purchase or receiving transfer that requires DROSing, valid CA ID would be required. So if the driver's license were suspended for the DUI or other traffic offense it's invalid and could not be used to purchase a new gun: a Calif ID card would be needed for that.