New CA Restraining Order Reform – Is This What Victory Looks Like?

A new law in California is being touted as a “victory for gun owners.”

The new law, Assembly Bill No. 950, provides an option to gun owners placed under a “gun violence restraining order.” Previously, when the state stole a person’s right to possess a firearm, that person was legally forced to sell his or her guns or to allow the police to steal them.

Under the terms of the new law, a person may “transfer his or her firearms or ammunition to a licensed firearms dealer for the duration of the [restraining order].”

What’s not mentioned in most coverage of this new law is the expansion of government fees it includes. Previous law allows a local municipality to charge fees to a gun owner from/to whom they stole, impounded, stored, and/or released firearms.

As of January 1, 2016, the government may charge citizens for taking, storing, and releasing their ammunition, too.

Land of the what?

Still, it’s an improvement over the earlier command that stripped a citizen of his or her guns entirely. But it probably won’t be cheap to transfer and store your guns with a dealer for a year.

Russ Chastain

Editor & Contributing Writer Russ Chastain is a lifelong hunter and shooter who has spent his life learning about hunting, shooting, guns, ammunition, gunsmithing, reloading, and bullet casting. He started toting his own gun in the woods at age nine and he's pursued deer with rifles since 1982, so his hunting knowledge has been growing for more than three and a half decades. His desire and ability to share this knowledge with others has also grown, and Russ has been professionally writing and editing original hunting & shooting content since 1998. Russ Chastain has a passion for sharing accurate, honest, interesting hunting & shooting knowledge and stories with people of all skill levels.