How to live with AB 962

For those unaware, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed AB 962 into law yesterday. The law, effective 2011-02-01, will require all sales of pistol ammunition to be face-to-face. This means physical direct contact during transaction between the buyer and seller. The buyer will be required to provide proof of identification and a thumbprint at time of transaction. The seller will be required to have a license to sell pistol ammunition in California as well as maintain records of all ammunition sales. There are other details and restrictions imposed on the seller, but this is the basic core of the new law.

What does this mean for California gun owners? Fundamentally, this ends the law abiding citizen’s ability to purchase any pistol ammunition via mail order. This will directly affect prices of ammunition in California because local stores will sell at a higher price due to the increased overhead of record keeping and license fees, as well as no direct competition from out of State (Internet / catalog) sales.

There is the cloudy issue of what pistol/handgun ammunition is defined as. The new law doesn’t define what is considered pistol ammo. In theory, several types of cartridges originally designed for rifles have been adapted for pistols. Most notably, .22LR rimfire ammunition is used in both rifles and pistols. Also, Thompson Center sells their Contender and Encore single-shot pistols with barrels chambered in many rifle cartridges from the diminutive .22 Hornet to the common .223 Remington to even .30-06 Springfield (the most common hunting rifle cartridge in the United States). So in theory, this law could actually ban mail order sales of many common rifle cartridges (not just pistol).

So what can the law abiding California gun owning citizen do to live with AB 962 assuming it goes into effect as signed?

1. Start handloading.

While making your own ammunition has been a tradition since the self-contained cartridge was invented, still only a small minority of shooters actually handload their own ammunition. Many do it to save money. Others do it to get better quality ammunition for their own guns. Others even do it for the fun of it. And some do it for all the above reasons. But for Californians who shoot pistols, the passing of AB 962 signals the time to start handloading.

2. Obtain a Curio and Relic Federal Firearms License (C&R FFL) and a California Certificate of Eligibility (COE).

There is a text in the new legislation that makes anyone who possesses a C&R FFL and a COE exempt from the purchase requirements as defined by the law.

Note: While this will make you exempt from having to furnish ID and a thumbprint with the local store/vendor, it is unknown if an out-of-state vendor/dealer will recognize this exemption or will even be willing to maintain customer records (hold copy of purchasers’ C&R FFL and CA COE) just for the requirements of this law. So this may not even be a solution depending on the attitude of the non-CA dealer/vendor.

That said, a C&R FFL is basically a collector’s license. It is not a license that allows a licensee to sell firearms. What the C&R FFL allows is for the licensee to buy and receive Curio and Relic firearms directly to his home (or the address on the license) without having to go through a FFL dealer to broker the transaction. I obtained a C&R FFL several years ago when I started collecting WWII military surplus rifles. But the biggest benefit for a C&R FFL even if you don’t collect old military surplus guns is the fact that some vendors such as Midway USA, Graf & Sons, and Brownells accept C&R FFL licenses as credentials to obtain dealer pricing at their stores. This, coupled with the fact that a C&R FFL only costs $30 and is valid for three years makes this one of the best kept secrets for gun owners.

The California COE on the other hand is more expensive at around $100 for the initial application and about $22 for each year after for renewal (prices vary depending on where fingerprints are taken). The COE in combination with the C&R FFL gives a benefits to gun owners in California including:

1. No ten (10) day waiting period on C&R purchases (long gun or pistol)
2. No “one pistol per 30 day” restriction
3. No Handgun Safety Certificate (HSC) requirement to purchase a pistol

All gun owners should have a C&R FFL. The discounts are just too good to not have for only $10 a year. As far as the COE, each Californian will have to weigh the benefits of paying the license fees with the possibility that out-of-state vendors will recognize those credentials as an exemption.

Stay tuned. I wrote a short handloading equipment guide several years ago, but I plan on writing a new one to help fellow Californians (and anyone else interested in starting to handload) become less dependent on factory ammunition.