The Wire · CalGunHub

Newsom signs AB 1078 overhauling CCW rules and purchase limits

Published October 10, 2025 · Updated October 12, 2026

The Berman bill changes concealed-carry licensing, adds a transit lock-box exemption, and replaces the one-gun-a-month rule with a three-per-30-day limit.

Written by the CalGunHub desk from public reporting

Who this affects: AB 1078 applies to concealed-carry applicants, including non-residents under specified conditions, to licensed dealers, and to firearm purchasers. Its CCW and transit lock-box provisions took effect Jan. 1, 2026; the limit of three purchase applications per 30-day period, with dealer notice duties, took effect April 1, 2026, per the statute's text. Local licensing authorities administer CCW issuance. This is general information, not legal advice.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 1078 on Oct. 10, 2025. The bill, authored by Assemblymember Marc Berman (D-Menlo Park) and sponsored by Attorney General Rob Bonta, was chaptered as Chapter 570, Statutes of 2025, according to the California Legislative Information website. The Assembly's Sept. 11, 2025 concurrence vote was 57 ayes to 20 noes.

The statute creates a path for non-California residents to obtain concealed-carry weapon licenses, subject to specified attestation requirements. It also exempts an unloaded firearm secured in a lock box from the SB 2 prohibition on carrying firearms on public transit and transit-controlled property.

Beginning April 1, 2026, the law raises the limit on applications to purchase firearms from one to three per 30-day period. Dealers must decline a transaction that would exceed the cap and must post notices about the limit. The change follows the Ninth Circuit's June 20, 2025 decision in Nguyen v. Bonta, which affirmed the invalidation of the prior one-gun-a-month law as applied to handguns and semiautomatic centerfire rifles. The measure additionally expands CCW disqualifiers and applies a 120-day renewal notice rule to applications submitted before Sept. 1, 2026.

The NRA's Institute for Legislative Action, an advocacy organization, criticized the bill in an Oct. 13, 2025 article grouping it with other firearms measures signed that week.

Update: The CCW and transit provisions took effect Jan. 1, 2026, and the three-per-30-day purchase limit took effect April 1, 2026. A follow-up bill, AB 1948 (2026), extending CCW license validity to three years, was signed June 30, 2026.

Informational only, not legal advice. Facts are attributed to the sources listed above.