CA law requires registration of "ghost guns"

[theGinsue]

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - California Governor Jerry Brown signed into law on Friday a bill to require anyone planning to build a homemade firearm to first obtain a serial number for the weapon and submit to a background check, his office said in a statement.The legislation signed by the Democratic governor of the country's most populous state follows his signing earlier this month of a sweeping package of gun control bills.
The office of California Assemblyman Jim Cooper, a Democrat who authored the bill, earlier this year said in a statement the legislation would end the production of home-made, untraceable firearms, which have come to be called "ghost guns."
The law bans the manufacture and possession of a home-made gun unless the builder first obtains a serial number from the Department of Justice and demonstrates that he or she is not prohibited by law from owning a firearm, such as due to a felony conviction, Cooper's office said.
Representatives from the National Rifle Association and the California Rifle & Pistol Association did not immediately return calls to seeking comment.
A representative for Cooper did not return an email seeking comment.

Please forgve me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't putting a serial number on a 'homemade' firearm put the individual (who made it for personal use) in violation of Federal law?

[Irving]

No. How do you figure?

[theGinsue]

Doesn't putting a serial number on it get into that whole "producing firearms" without an FFL thing?

[Irving]

Doesn't putting a serial number on it get into that whole "producing firearms" without an FFL thing?

Only if you're selling them. Just making them and serializing them doesn't mean anything on its own.

[Grant H.]

Doesn't putting a serial number on it get into that whole "producing firearms" without an FFL thing?

Only if you're selling them. Just making them and serializing them doesn't mean anything on its own.

It's actually even more of a gray area than that...

It's only a problem if you manufacture them with the INTENT to sell them. It is actually completely legal to manufacture a firearm for personal use, serialized or not, and then later decide to sell the firearm.

[Irving]

It's actually even more of a gray area than that...

It's only a problem if you manufacture them with the INTENT to sell them. It is actually completely legal to manufacture a firearm for personal use, serialized or not, and then later decide to sell the firearm.

Correct.

[Great-Kazoo]

Correct.

Thank you Mr. Hand.

[cstone]

I wonder how many of these so called "ghost guns" have been used to commit crimes in California? It must be significant for the legislators in Sacramento to be so fixated on this scourge on society.

[theGinsue]

Ah, thanks for the education.

[HoneyBadger]

lol


See my signature line below.