California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a 10-bill firearm package on September 26, 2026. Five of those laws have especially direct consequences for firearm owners, prospective buyers, personal firearm importers, law enforcement agencies, and 3D-printer sellers. The signed measures are laws, not pending proposals, but their operative dates are staggered. The governor's announcement identifies the full package; the chaptered texts supply the controlling details.
Certificate and importer deadlines
SB 948 changes the rules for a person who moves into California with a firearm. The statute expands the period for a personal firearm importer to report or otherwise dispose of the firearm from 60 days to 180 days. Beginning January 1, 2028, an importer who files the report must also certify under penalty of perjury that the importer has a valid firearm safety certificate or qualifies for an exemption. The report must include the certificate number or identify the exemption; failure to supply that information is an infraction.
The same law adds a larger requirement for firearm safety certificate applicants on January 1, 2029. An applicant must have completed, within the previous year, a training course lasting at least four hours. The course must cover firearm safety and handling and include live-fire exercises at a shooting range. California's Department of Justice may issue implementing regulations and additional information. The enacted text does not yet settle practical details such as the final course curriculum, instructor approval process, scheduling, or total price, so prospective applicants do not have a complete compliance checklist today.
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Temporary police storage and protective orders
AB 1974 authorizes, but does not compel, a police or sheriff's department to create a voluntary temporary firearm-storage program. An agency that adopts one must be able to store a firearm for one year and publish instructions for both surrender and return. On receipt, the agency must check the Automated Firearms System to determine whether the gun was reported lost, stolen, or involved in a crime, then update the system to record its current disposition. The law also shields a participating agency from liability for damage to firearms in its temporary custody.
Getting a stored firearm back is not an informal counter pickup. The owner must use California's Law Enforcement Release process, and the agency must confirm eligibility before return. If the owner misses the storage period set by the agency, the firearm must be destroyed under agency policy, although destruction cannot occur while a timely release application is awaiting an eligibility decision. A firearm may instead go to a qualifying museum or historical collection after being rendered inoperable. Owners considering a local program will need to read that agency's stated deadline and return instructions before surrendering property.
AB 1753 revises procedures across several types of protective and restraining orders. Its firearm-related provisions expressly require a restrained person to relinquish ammunition as well as firearms in that person's immediate possession or control. Starting January 1, 2028, courts must permit free remote appearances and electronic filings for postsecondary-school and workplace-violence restraining-order matters, subject to the statute's procedures. The measure also adds firearm-record searches and notification provisions in specified proceedings. These are procedural changes; the law does not turn every protective-order filing into an immediate final prohibition without the applicable court process.
Printer standards and a new ten-year prohibition
AB 2047 sets a conditional path toward mandatory firearm-blocking technology in 3D printers sold in California. By July 1, 2027, the Department of Justice must begin quarterly checks for ASTM International standards covering that technology. If qualifying standards exist and DOJ finds the technology feasible, the department has 24 months to issue guidance or regulations. One year after those rules are published, manufacturers and sellers may not sell or transfer for consideration a covered printer in California unless it meets the state standard.
The printer restriction is therefore not an immediate ban on current machines, and its ultimate activation depends on an outside technical standard and later DOJ action. The statute defines blocking technology as integrated hardware, firmware, or another measure that evaluates a print file and stops jobs identified as producing a firearm or machine-gun conversion device. Printers used exclusively to manufacture entertainment-industry props are exempt, and DOJ may create more exceptions. If ASTM has not published a qualifying standard by July 1, 2029, DOJ no longer has to continue checking under this law.
Finally, SB 1220 adds a specific misdemeanor to California's ten-year firearm-prohibition list. A person convicted on or after January 1, 2027, of altering, removing, or obliterating a firearm's identifying marks, or dealing in or possessing a firearm with those marks altered, becomes barred for ten years from owning, buying, receiving, possessing, or controlling a firearm. The immediate owner-facing dates are January 1, 2027 for that conviction-based prohibition, January 1, 2028 for SB 948's importer certification and parts of AB 1753, and January 1, 2029 for the new certificate training course.
About the Author
Nick Sawinyh - Nick Sawinyh is a father, husband, hobby farmer, and gun enthusiast from Kentucky. He founded GunsNation and writes most of what appears on this blog.
