The Wire · CalGunHub

Three-firearms-per-30-day purchase limit takes effect statewide

Published April 1, 2026 · Updated October 12, 2026

The AB 1078 provision replacing the invalidated one-gun-a-month rule took effect April 1, 2026, with dealer notice and refusal duties.

Written by the CalGunHub desk from public reporting

Who this affects: This provision applies to firearm purchasers and licensed dealers in California. Since April 1, 2026, the statute limits applications to purchase firearms to three per rolling 30-day period, counting handguns, long guns, completed frames and receivers, and precursor parts, and dealers must refuse transactions over the cap and post warnings. The rule does not limit possession of firearms already owned. This is general information, not legal advice.

The AB 1078 provision raising the limit on applications to purchase firearms from one to three per rolling 30-day period took effect April 1, 2026. AB 1078, authored by Assemblymember Marc Berman and sponsored by Attorney General Rob Bonta, was chaptered as Chapter 570, Statutes of 2025.

Under the provision, dealers must decline a sale if the Department of Justice notifies them that the buyer's applications would exceed three in the preceding 30 days, and dealers must post conspicuous in-store warnings about the limit. Handguns, rifles, shotguns, completed frames and receivers, and precursor parts count toward the cap, according to summaries of the statute.

The new limit replaces the one-gun-a-month rule struck down in Nguyen v. Bonta; the Ninth Circuit affirmed the invalidation of that law as applied to handguns and semiautomatic centerfire rifles on June 20, 2025. AB 1078 was signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Oct. 10, 2025, with its concealed-carry and transit provisions effective Jan. 1, 2026 and the purchase limit deferred to April.

The limit operates on a rolling 30-day window rather than a calendar month, according to the DOJ bulletin. Gun Owners of California, an advocacy organization, included the change in its overview of new California gun laws for 2026, and the effective date was covered by legal commentators after it took effect.

The DOJ distributed the requirements to dealers and vendors on its centralized list ahead of the effective date. The three-per-30-day framework is an application limit administered through the dealer transaction process rather than a possession limit, according to the DOJ bulletin describing the new requirements.

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