California Code of Regulations › Title 11 - Law › Division 5 - Firearms Regulations › Chapter 39 - Assault Weapons and Large-Capacity Magazines › Article 2 - Registration Requirement, What Qualifies for Registration, and Definitions › Section 5471 - Registration of Assault Weapons Pursuant to Penal Code Section 30900(b)(1); Explanation of Terms Related to Assault Weapon Designation

Current through Register 2024 Notice Reg. No. 28, July 12, 2024
For purposes of Penal Code section
					 30900 and Articles 2
					 and 3 of this Chapter the following definitions shall apply:
(a) "Ability to accept a detachable magazine"
				  means with respect to a semiautomatic shotgun, it does not have a fixed
				  magazine.
(b) "Action" means the working
				  mechanism of a semiautomatic firearm, which is the combination of the receiver or
				  frame and breech bolt together with the other parts of the mechanism by which a
				  firearm is loaded, fired, and unloaded.
(c) "Barrel" means the tube, usually metal and
				  cylindrical, through which a projectile or shot charge is fired. Barrels may have a
				  rifled or smooth bore.
(d) "Barrel
				  length" means the length of the barrel measured as follows: Without consideration of
				  any extensions or protrusions rearward of the closed bolt or breech-face the
				  approved procedure for measuring barrel length is to measure from the closed bolt
				  (or breech-face) to the furthermost end of the barrel or permanently attached muzzle
				  device. Permanent methods of attachment include full-fusion gas or electric
				  steel-seam welding, high-temperature (1100°F) silver soldering, or blind pinning
				  with the pin head welded over. Barrels are measured by inserting a dowel rod into
				  the barrel until the rod stops against the closed bolt or breech-face. The rod is
				  then marked at the furthermost end of the barrel or permanently attached muzzle
				  device, withdrawn from the barrel, and measured.
(e) "Bullet" means the projectile expelled from a
				  gun. It is not synonymous with a cartridge. Bullets can be of many materials,
				  shapes, weights, and constructions such as solid lead, lead with a jacket of harder
				  metal, round-nosed, flat-nosed, hollow-pointed, et cetera.
(f) "Bullet-button" means a product requiring a
				  tool to remove an ammunition feeding device or magazine by depressing a recessed
				  button or lever shielded by a magazine lock. A bullet-button equipped fully
				  functional semiautomatic firearm does not meet the fixed magazine definition under
				  Penal Code section
				  30515(b).
(g) "Bore" means the interior of a firearm's
				  barrel excluding the chamber.
(h)
				  "Caliber" means the nominal diameter of a projectile of a rifled firearm or the
				  diameter between lands in a rifled barrel. In the United States, caliber is usually
				  expressed in hundreds of an inch; in Great Britain in thousandths of an inch; in
				  Europe and elsewhere in millimeters.
(i)
				  "Cartridge" means a complete round of ammunition that consists of a primer, a case,
				  propellant powder and one or more projectiles.
(j) "Centerfire" means a cartridge with its primer
				  located in the center of the base of the case.
(k) "Contained in" means that the magazine cannot
				  be released from the firearm while the action is assembled. For AR-15 style firearms
				  this means the magazine cannot be released from the firearm while the upper receiver
				  and lower receiver are joined together.
(l) "Department" means the California Department
				  of Justice.
(m) "Detachable magazine"
				  means any ammunition feeding device that can be removed readily from the firearm
				  without disassembly of the firearm action or use of a tool. A bullet or ammunition
				  cartridge is considered a tool. An ammunition feeding device includes any belted or
				  linked ammunition, but does not include clips, en bloc clips, or stripper clips that
				  load cartridges into the magazine.
An AR-15 style firearm that has a bullet-button style magazine
					 release with a magnet left on the bullet-button constitutes a detachable magazine.
					 An AR-15 style firearm lacking a magazine catch assembly (magazine catch, magazine
					 catch spring and magazine release button) constitutes a detachable magazine. An
					 AK-47 style firearm lacking a magazine catch assembly (magazine catch, spring and
					 rivet/pin) constitutes a detachable magazine.
(n) "Disassembly of the firearm action" means the
				  fire control assembly is detached from the action in such a way that the action has
				  been interrupted and will not function. For example, disassembling the action on a
				  two part receiver, like that on an AR-15 style firearm, would require the rear take
				  down pin to be removed, the upper receiver lifted upwards and away from the lower
				  receiver using the front pivot pin as the fulcrum, before the magazine may be
				  removed.
(o) "Featureless" means a
				  semiautomatic firearm (rifle, pistol, or shotgun) lacking the characteristics
				  associated with that weapon, as listed in Penal Code section
				  30515.
(p) "Fixed magazine" means an ammunition feeding
				  device contained in, or permanently attached to, a firearm in such a manner that the
				  device cannot be removed without disassembly of the firearm action.
(q) "Flare launcher" means a device used to launch
				  signal flares.
(r) "Flash suppressor"
				  means any device attached to the end of the barrel, that is designed, intended, or
				  functions to perceptibly reduce or redirect muzzle flash from the shooter's field of
				  vision. A hybrid device that has either advertised flash suppressing properties or
				  functionally has flash suppressing properties would be deemed a flash suppressor. A
				  device labeled or identified by its manufacturer as a flash hider would be deemed a
				  flash suppressor.
(s) "FMBUS" means a
				  Firearm Manufactured By Unlicensed Subject.
(t) "Forward pistol grip" means a grip that allows
				  for a pistol style grasp forward of the trigger.
(u) "Frame" means the receiver of a
				  pistol.
(v) "Grenade launcher" means a
				  device capable of launching a grenade.
(w) "Permanently attached to" means the magazine
				  is welded, epoxied, or riveted into the magazine well. A firearm with a magazine
				  housed in a sealed magazine well and then welded, epoxied, or riveted into the
				  sealed magazine well meets the definition of "permanently attached to".
(x) "Overall length of less than 30 inches" with
				  respect to a centerfire rifle means the rifle has been measured in the shortest
				  possible configuration that the weapon will function/fire and the measurement is
				  less than 30 inches. Folding and telescoping stocks shall be collapsed prior to
				  measurement. The approved method for measuring the length of the rifle is to measure
				  the firearm from the end of the barrel, or permanently attached muzzle device, if so
				  equipped, to that part of the stock that is furthest from the end of the barrel, or
				  permanently attached muzzle device. (Prior to taking a measurement the owner must
				  also check any muzzle devices for how they are attached to the barrel.)
(y) "Pistol" means any device designed to be used
				  as a weapon, from which a projectile is expelled by the force of any explosion, or
				  other form of combustion, and that has a barrel less than 16 inches in length. This
				  definition includes AR-15 style pistols with pistol buffer tubes attached. Pistol
				  buffer tubes typically have smooth metal with no guide on the bottom for rifle
				  stocks to be attached, and they sometimes have a foam pad on the end of the tube
				  farthest from the receiver.
(z) "Pistol
				  grip that protrudes conspicuously beneath the action of the weapon" means a grip
				  that allows for a pistol style grasp in which the web of the trigger hand (between
				  the thumb and index finger) can be placed beneath or below the top of the exposed
				  portion of the trigger while firing. This definition includes pistol grips on
				  bullpup firearm designs.
(aa) "Receiver"
				  means the basic unit of a firearm which houses the firing and breech mechanisms and
				  to which the barrel and stock are assembled.
(bb) "Receiver, lower" means the lower part of a
				  two part receiver.
(cc) "Receiver,
				  unfinished" means a precursor part to a firearm that is not yet legally a firearm.
				  Unfinished receivers may be found in various levels of completion. As more finishing
				  work is completed the precursor part gradually becomes a firearm. Some just have the
				  shape of an AR-15 lower receiver for example, but are solid metal. Some have been
				  worked on and the magazine well has been machined open. Firearms Manufactured by
				  Unlicensed Subjects (FMBUS) began as unfinished receivers.
(dd) "Receiver, upper" means the top portion of a
				  two part receiver.
(ee) "Rifle" means a
				  weapon designed or redesigned, made or remade, and intended to be fired from the
				  shoulder and designed or redesigned and made or remade to use the energy of the
				  explosive in a fixed cartridge to fire only a single projectile through a rifled
				  bore for each single pull of the trigger.
(ff) "Rimfire" means a rimmed or flanged cartridge
				  with the priming mixture located in the rim of the case.
(gg) "Second handgrip" means a grip that allows
				  the shooter to grip the pistol with their non-trigger hand. The second hand grip
				  often has a grip texture to assist the shooter in weapon control.
(hh) "Semiautomatic" means a firearm functionally
				  able to fire a single cartridge, eject the empty case, and reload the chamber each
				  time the trigger is pulled and released. Further, certain necessary mechanical parts
				  that will allow a firearm to function in a semiautomatic nature must be present for
				  a weapon to be deemed semiautomatic. A weapon clearly designed to be semiautomatic
				  but lacking a firing pin, bolt carrier, gas tube, or some other crucial part of the
				  firearm is not semiautomatic for purposes of Penal Code sections
				  30515,
				  30600,
				  30605(a),
				  and
				  30900.
(1) A mechanically whole semiautomatic firearm
				  merely lacking ammunition and a proper magazine is a semiautomatic
				  firearm.
(2) A mechanically whole
				  semiautomatic firearm disabled by a gun lock or other firearm safety device is a
				  semiautomatic firearm. (All necessary parts are present, once the gun lock or
				  firearm safety device is removed, and weapon can be loaded with a magazine and
				  proper ammunition.)
(3) With regards to
				  an AR-15 style firearm, if a complete upper receiver and a complete lower receiver
				  are completely detached from one another, but still in the possession or under the
				  custody or control of the same person, the firearm is not a semiautomatic
				  firearm.
(4) A stripped AR-15 lower
				  receiver, when sold at a California gun store, is not a semiautomatic firearm. (The
				  action type, among other things, is undetermined.)