Mailing a Handgun Barrel to California

[Grumulkin]

A guy in California wishes to buy a handgun barrel. It's for a single shot handgun (Contender), isn't threaded and is not chambered for a shotgun cartridge. As far as I can tell there is no legal prohibition for mailing it to him.

I have done a fairly extensive internet search on the subject. If anyone has confirmatory or conflicting information, I'd like to hear it.

 

[RickD427]

IANAL, but am a retired California LEO who put together a lot of firearms cases during my working days. California has no statute, of which I am aware, that would prohibit the mailing of the barrel to California.

But you also have to keep in mind that California law is really weird, and is easily violated, often with the potential of substantial criminal sanction.

California does not prohibit threaded barrels, nor does it prohibit the possession of shotgun barrels less than 18". But it does impose felony penalties if one installs the threaded barrel on a semi-auto handgun with a detachable magazine (creating an illegal "Assault Weapon"), or if one installs the short shotgun barrel onto a shotgun, or possesses it in conjunction with the other component parts of a shotgun (creating an illegal "Short Barrel Shotgun").

Additionally, California does not apply "Constructive Possession" provisions to Assault Weapons, but does apply "Constructive Possession" provisions to Short Barrel Shotguns.

 

[danez71]

I agree with Rick.

However, some cities within Los Angeles have a few quirks. I'm more familiar with south of LA and I think Rick was more north like Sacramento area.

I still think you're ok with that, though. I can't think of any laws that would apply.

Further validation would be to go to brownell's / midway etc and order one up with the destination city address. They'll stop you before putting in credit card info

 

[Grumulkin]

I appreciate the information from both of you. I did put in a tentative handgun barrel order on MidwayUSA to the California address and there was no apparent problem in sending a barrel there. My other internet research also brought up no evidence that mailing a barrel such as I have to California was prohibited.

 

[rodregier]

I would put more trust in Brownell's issue detector than Midway's.

Midway twice ended up with massive US ITAR export fines for shipments to Canada
(theoretically trying to comply with ITAR) before giving up on the Canadian marketplace for US exports.

I haven't heard any comparable stories about Brownells.

FWIW...