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 Bill Text - AB-879 Firearms: unsafe handguns.

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 |Add To My Favorites |Track Bill | Version: 06/11/25 - Amended Senate
 03/24/25 - Amended Assembly
 02/19/25 - Introduced

 AB-879 Firearms: unsafe handguns.(2025-2026)

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 Date Published: 06/11/2025 09:00 PM

AB879:v97#DOCUMENTBill Start

 Amended
 IN 
 Senate
 June 11, 2025

 Amended
 IN 
 Assembly
 March 24, 2025

 CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE—
 2025–2026 REGULAR SESSION

 Assembly Bill

No. 879

Introduced by Assembly Member Patterson

February 19, 2025

 An act to amend Section 32000 of the Penal Code, relating to firearms. 

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

AB 879, as amended, Patterson.
 Firearms: unsafe handguns.

Existing law makes it a crime, punishable by not more than one year in county jail, to manufacture or cause to be manufactured, import into the state for sale, keep for sale, offer or expose for sale, give, or lend an unsafe handgun. Existing law establishes certain exemptions to this prohibition, including, among others, exemptions for sales to specified law enforcement agencies and other specified government agencies for use by specified employees and sales to specified peace officers.

Existing law imposes certain vehicle storage requirements on specified persons who obtain an unsafe handgun. A violation of those provisions is a crime.

Existing law specifies that the sale of an unsafe handgun to certain specified entities, including county probation departments, and members of
 those entities, is only authorized if the handgun is to be used as a service weapon by a peace officer who has successfully completed the basic course prescribed by the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) and who qualifies with the handgun, as specified, at least every 6 months. Existing law also provides that this training requirement may be satisfied by completion of the firearm portion of a training course prescribed by POST, if that training was completed before January 1, 2021.

This bill would instead authorize a peace officer employed by a county probation department and using an unsafe handgun as a service weapon to satisfy the above-described training requirement by completion of the firearm portion of a training course prescribed by POST.

Because the bill would expand the application of the crime of improperly storing an unsafe handgun in an unattended vehicle to additional persons, this bill
 would impose a state-mandated local program.

The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.

This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

Digest Key

 Vote:
 MAJORITY 
 Appropriation:
 NO 
 Fiscal Committee:
 YES 
 Local Program:
 YES 

Bill Text

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.

 Section 32000 of the Penal Code is amended to read:

32000.

 (a) (1) A person in this state who manufactures or causes to be manufactured, imports into the state for sale, keeps for sale, offers or exposes for sale, gives, or lends an unsafe handgun shall be punished by imprisonment in a county jail not exceeding one year.

(2) The failure to report to the Department of Justice in accordance with the provisions of paragraph (2) of subdivision (e) the sale or transfer of an unsafe handgun obtained pursuant to paragraph (4), (6), or (7) (7), or (8) of subdivision
 (b) may be subject to a civil penalty not to exceed ten thousand dollars ($10,000).

(3) In addition to any criminal penalty provided in paragraph (1), the unlawful sale or transfer of an unsafe handgun obtained pursuant to paragraph (4), (6), or (7) (7), or (8) of subdivision (b) may be subject to a civil penalty not to exceed ten thousand dollars ($10,000).

(b) This section shall not apply to any of the following:

(1) The manufacture in this state, or importation into this state, of a prototype handgun when the manufacture or importation is for
 the sole purpose of allowing an independent laboratory certified by the Department of Justice pursuant to Section 32010 to conduct an independent test to determine whether that handgun is prohibited by Sections 31900 to 32110, inclusive, and, if not, allowing the department to add the firearm to the roster of handguns that may be sold in this state purs