What is the California handgun roster and why are some pistols not for sale here?

Penal Code 32000(a) applies to a person in California 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." The penalty is up to one year in county jail. Possession is not among the acts listed in that subdivision.

A manufacturer gives three samples of the model to an independent laboratory certified by DOJ (Penal Code 31905(a), Penal Code 32010). The lab runs two tests:

• Firing. Each gun fires 600 rounds. It must fire the first 20 without a malfunction and finish with no more than six malfunctions, not counting ammunition that fails to detonate (Penal Code 31905).
• Drop safety. The same three guns are dropped six ways from one meter onto a concrete slab. The model passes if no gun fires the primer (Penal Code 31900).

Penal Code 31910 adds design requirements. A pistol needs a positive manually operated safety device, and a revolver needs a safety device that keeps the firing pin off the primer. Since July 1, 2022, a centerfire semiautomatic pistol that is not already on the roster must have a chamber load indicator, and a centerfire or rimfire semiautomatic pistol with a detachable magazine that is not already on the roster must have a magazine disconnect mechanism.

Microstamping is not in the current text of Penal Code 31910; see the microstamping explainer.

The lab tests the handgun "at the manufacturer's or importer's expense" and sends its report and a prototype to DOJ (Penal Code 32010(c)). DOJ may also charge manufacturers and sellers an annual fee, due January 1 of each year or the next business day, that may not exceed the cost of maintaining the roster and running the program (Penal Code 32015(b)(1)).

The statutes describe three routes:

1. Unpaid fee. A handgun whose maker fails to pay the annual fee "may be excluded from the roster" (Penal Code 32015(b)(2)).
2. Failed retest. The Attorney General may retest up to 5 percent of listed models each year. A model that fails is removed (Penal Code 32020), and the maker can petition for reinstatement (Penal Code 32025).
3. Three-for-one removal. For each semiautomatic pistol newly added to the roster, DOJ must remove exactly three semiautomatic pistols that lack a chamber load indicator or magazine disconnect and were added before July 1, 2022, starting with the oldest listings (Penal Code 31910(b)).

A centerfire semiautomatic pistol cannot be submitted for testing unless it has both a chamber load indicator and a magazine disconnect mechanism (Penal Code 32010(d)). Models listed before those rules applied can stay, subject to the three-for-one removal above.

The main exceptions in the statutes are:

• A private party transfer completed through a licensed dealer (Penal Code 32110(a)). See the private party transfer guide.
• A transfer that is exempt from the dealer requirement, such as a qualifying transfer between a parent and child (Penal Code 32110(b)).
• Handguns listed as curios or relics under federal regulations (Penal Code 32000(b)(3), 32110(g)). See the curio and relic explainer.
• Certain single-action revolvers and single-shot pistols that meet size specifications (Penal Code 32100).
• Listed Olympic and Paralympic target pistols (Penal Code 32105).
• Sales to listed law enforcement agencies and, for some agencies, their sworn members (Penal Code 32000(b)(4), (6), (7)).

AB 1127 is a separate dealer rule. Since July 1, 2026, a licensed dealer may not sell or deliver a "semiautomatic machinegun-convertible pistol," with exceptions that include private party transfers through a dealer (Penal Code 27595). A pistol that was on the roster on January 1, 2026, and was listed before the chamber load indicator and magazine disconnect rules applied to it, may be resubmitted without those two features if the only changes are to the design features that brought it within that definition and it goes to a certified lab before January 1, 2027 (Penal Code 32103). See the AB 1127 page.

• Boland v. Bonta, No. 23-55276. The district court issued a preliminary injunction on March 20, 2023. On March 31, 2023, the Ninth Circuit stayed it as to the chamber load indicator and magazine disconnect requirements. The appeal was argued on August 23, 2023. On March 25, 2024, the panel vacated submission pending the en banc decision in Duncan v. Bonta, and on March 27, 2025, it ordered supplemental briefs on the effect of that decision. The latest entries (June 11, 2026) are attorney changes (docket).
• Renna v. Bonta, No. 23-55367. Argued the same day before the same panel, with the same orders vacating submission and calling for supplemental briefs. The latest filings are supplemental authority letters dated July 7 and July 10, 2026 (docket).

No opinion appears on either docket as checked on 2026-11-10, and a search of published Ninth Circuit opinions under both case numbers returned nothing. The docket pages are third-party copies of the court record; they showed last updates of September 29, 2026 (Boland) and August 24, 2026 (Renna).