The Wire · CalGunHub

AB 1943 creates standardized Secure Firearm Storage Notification for parents

Published September 26, 2026 · Updated October 12, 2026

Local educational agencies will send families a uniform Secure Firearm Storage Notification covering safe-storage and child-access laws.

Written by the CalGunHub desk from public reporting

Who this affects: AB 1943 is aimed at schools and families rather than gun owners directly. Beginning Jan. 1, 2027, local educational agencies must work the Secure Firearm Storage Notification into their annual parent communications, and and from July 1, 2027 the department must supply model language and formatting options online. Parents and guardians should expect a standardized notice describing the risks of unsecured firearms and summarizing state child-access-prevention and safe-storage statutes. Districts and charter schools will need to update their notification templates. The double-jointing clause with SB 685 means the chaptered text controls final details. This is general information, not legal advice.

Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 1943 on Sept. 26, 2026, and it was chaptered the same day as Chapter 459 of the Statutes of 2026. The author is Assemblymember Mike A. Gipson (D-Carson), with coauthors Connolly and Ward. The Assembly concurred 78-0 on Aug. 26, and the bill was enrolled Sept. 3.

The bill amends Education Code sections 32289.6, 48986 and 49604 and repeals sections 49391 and 49392, recasting existing annual school notifications into a standardized Secure Firearm Storage Notification. Under the new structure, school districts, county education offices and charter schools must tell parents and guardians of every enrolled student about secure firearm storage through a notice describing the risks of children accessing unsecured firearms and summarizing state laws on child-access prevention and safe storage, according to the Desert Sun and the Legislative Counsel's Digest reproduced by the Apple Valley Gun Club.

Beginning July 1, 2027, the Department of Education has to publish model wording for the notice on its website, with formatting and content choices for local educational agencies. The notice framework is also tied to schools' armed-assailant drill guidance and suicide-prevention training notices. The bill contains double-jointing language with SB 685, so its final operation depends on chaptering order between the two measures.

The measure drew no recorded opposition on the Assembly floor, in contrast to the divided votes on several other bills in the package. AB 1943 was one of 10 firearms-related bills signed Sept. 26. It takes effect Jan. 1, 2027 as a non-urgency statute, with the department's model-language duties starting the following July.

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