| .50 Caliber BMG Regulation Act of 2004 | |
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| California State Legislature | |
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| Enacted by | California State Legislature |
| Enacted | June 4, 2004 (Assembly) August 23, 2004 (Senate, amended) August 25, 2004 (Senate, concurrence) |
| Signed | September 13, 2004 |
| Introduced by | Paul Koretz (D-42nd-Los Angeles) |
The .50 Caliber BMG Regulation Act of 2004 is a law in the state of California that effectively banned all .50 BMG-caliber rifles from being sold in the state. The law took effect on January 1, 2005. [1]
The legislature of California declared that "proliferation and use" of .50 BMG rifles posed a terrorist threat, as well as a threat to the "health, safety, and security of all residents" of California. [1] The act required existing .50 BMG rifles to be registered with the state and prohibited the sale of any rifle after the ban went into effect. To quote the state web site, the act "regulates the .50 BMG rifles in essentially the same manner as assault weapons." [2] The law specifically allowed a registration period of one year, now passed, to register any such firearms, after which unregistered weapons would become illegal firearms.
"A .50 BMG rifle is defined as a centerfire rifle that can fire a .50 BMG cartridge and is not already an assault weapon ... or a machinegun" [2]
".50 BMG cartridge" is defined as a cartridge that is designed and intended to be fired from a centerfire rifle and that meets all of the following criteria: (1) It has an overall length of 5.54 inches (141 mm) from the base to the tip of the bullet. (2) The bullet diameter for the cartridge is from .510 to, and including, .511-inch (13.0 mm). (3) The case base diameter for the cartridge is from .800-inch (20.3 mm) to, and including, .804 inch. (4) The cartridge case length is 3.91 inches (99 mm). (PC § 12278.) [3]
The law does not apply to the law enforcement officers with permission from their employing agencies. [3]
Exceptions are granted to rifles classified as antiques or Curio and Relics as defined by the BATFE. [3]
Out-of-state owners may bring .50 BMG rifles into the state for shooting competitions. [3]
Limited exceptions are granted for exhibitions, displays, and education projects sponsored by law enforcement or government agencies. [3]
You hold a valid permit to possess an assault weapon specifically (not just a general concealed carry permit) from the State Department of Justice.
You lawfully possessed the rifle before it was made illegal (i.e., before January 1, 2005) and registered it before April 30, 2006 with the State Department of Justice.
You are the executor or administrator of an estate that lawfully holds such firearms.
As a result of the ban, the Barrett Firearms Company announced it would no longer sell to or service any of its rifles in the possession of any California government agency. [5]
A 1999 Justice Department Office of Special Investigations briefing on .50 caliber rifle crime identified several instances of the .50 BMG being involved in criminal activities. [6] Only one instance (the Branch Davidians at Waco, Texas) involved the alleged use of a .50 BMG during the commission of a crime; the remainder involved illegal possession (e.g. stolen), not use. The briefing did not identify any instance of a .50 BMG rifle being used in the commission of a murder.
According to the GAO report there were no instances of violent crime with a .50 BMG rifle, while providing examples of crimes that had occurred: a doomsday cult possessed 10 rifles and were arrested for using false identities, a .50 BMG rifle was stolen and later recovered, and a claim by the ATF that the Branch Davidians fired a .50 BMG prior to the ATF firing tear gas and incendiary devices at the occupied structure. No .50 BMG rifles were reported recovered after the ATF siege at Waco
The .510 DTC Europ has since been introduced to take advantage of the highly specific language used in the act. The round provides almost identical ballistics and performance, but cannot be used in weapons chambered for .50 BMG.
Barrett has since produced the .416 Barrett, a necked-down .50 BMG case using a .416 caliber bullet, which is not subject to the .50 BMG Act because of the smaller caliber. It has the benefit of having a flatter trajectory and longer effective range than the .50 BMG.
A carbine is a long gun that has a barrel shortened from its original length. Most modern carbines are rifles that are compact versions of a longer rifle or are rifles chambered for less powerful cartridges.
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The .50 BMG, also known as 12.7×99mm NATO, and designated as the 50 Browning by the C.I.P., is a .50 in (12.7 mm) caliber cartridge developed for the M2 Browning heavy machine gun in the late 1910s, entering official service in 1921. Under STANAG 4383, it is a standard service cartridge for NATO forces, as well as many non-NATO countries. The cartridge itself has been made in many variants: multiple generations of regular ball, tracer, armor-piercing (AP), incendiary, and saboted sub-caliber rounds. The rounds intended for machine guns are made into a continuous belt using metallic links.
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The .32-20 Winchester, also known as .32 WCF , was the first small-game lever-action cartridge that Winchester produced. It was initially introduced as a black-powder cartridge in 1882 for small-game, varmint hunting, and deer. Colt produced a single-action revolver chambered for this cartridge a few years later.
The Violence Policy Center (VPC) is an American nonprofit organization that advocates for gun control.
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A caliber conversion sleeve or adapter sleeve is a device which can be used to non-permanently alter a firearm to allow it to fire a different cartridge than the one it was originally designed to fire. The different cartridge must be smaller in some dimensions than the original design cartridge, and since smaller cartridges are usually cheaper, the device allows less expensive fire practice.
The .510 DTC EUROP is a French rifle cartridge developed by Eric Danis in order to comply with firearms legislation of .50 BMG rifles in Europe. In response to the .50 Caliber BMG Regulation Act of 2004, which banned future sales of .50 BMG shoulder-fired rifles in California, long-range shooters in that state have begun to adopt this cartridge as a manner of following the new legislation.
Short-barreled rifle broadly refers to any rifle with an unusually short barrel. The term carbine describes a production rifle with a reduced barrel length for easier handling in confined spaces. Concern about concealment for illegal purposes has encouraged regulations specifying minimum barrel lengths and overall lengths.
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The .416 Barrett, also known as 10.4×83mm, centerfire rifle cartridge is a proprietary bottlenecked centrefire rifle cartridge designed in 2005. It is an alternative to the large-caliber .50 BMG in long-range high-power rifles. It was designed in response to a request for a medium/heavy rifle cartridge combination that was issued from Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane Division in late 2004.
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Gun laws in California regulate the sale, possession, and use of firearms and ammunition in the state of California in the United States.
The Roberti–Roos Assault Weapons Control Act of 1989 (AWCA) is a California law that bans the ownership and transfer of over 50 specific brands and models of firearms, which were classified as assault weapons. Most were rifles, but some were pistols and shotguns. The law was amended in 1999 to classify assault weapons by features of the firearm. Firearms that were legally owned at the time the law was passed were grandfathered if they were registered with the California Department of Justice. The law was overturned in June 2021 in Miller v. Bonta; the ruling is stayed pending appeal.
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A silencer, also known as a sound suppressor, suppressor, or sound moderator, is a muzzle device that suppresses the blast created when a gun is discharged, thereby reducing the acoustic intensity of the muzzle report and jump, by modulating the speed and pressure of the propellant gas released from the muzzle. Like other muzzle devices, a silencer can be a detachable accessory mounted to the muzzle, or an integral part of the barrel.
