The Wire · CalGunHub

AB 458, firearm procurement guidelines bill, dies on Senate inactive file

Published August 17, 2026 · Updated October 12, 2026

The Stefani measure, a Gun Violence Prevention Working Group priority, never returned to the Senate floor after being made inactive Aug. 17.

Written by the CalGunHub desk from public reporting

Who this affects: AB 458's failure means state and local procurement rules for firearm, ammunition and accessory contracts stay as they are: no new statewide guidelines were enacted in 2026. Public agencies, vendors and advocacy groups that watched the Working Group package should note the concept could return in a future session, but this bill is dead and created no obligations. The detailed content of any final version is unknown because the bill stalled before enrollment; only the introduced text is publicly verifiable. This is general information, not legal advice.

AB 458, a proposal to write statewide standards governing public contracts for firearms, ammunition and accessories, died at the end of the 2026 session after being placed on the Senate's inactive file Aug. 17, 2026, according to the bill's history on the state's legislative information website. The request to move the bill to the inactive file came from Sen. Ashby, and no further action occurred before the Legislature adjourned Aug. 31.

The author is Assemblymember Catherine Stefani (D-San Francisco), who described the concept as Statewide Firearm Procurement Guidelines within the Gun Violence Prevention Working Group's nine-bill priority package announced March 26, 2026. As introduced, the bill would have added section 10334.1 to the Public Contract Code, setting expectations for how state and local agencies structure contracts with firearm and ammunition vendors.

The bill's path had been uneventful until the end. It passed the Assembly and cleared the Senate Appropriations Committee 5-0 on Aug. 13, 2026, before stalling four days later. Bills on the inactive file can be revived by their authors, but AB 458 never returned to the floor, leaving it dead for the year. The Working Group's other firearms measures fared better: nine-bill package items including AB 1753 reached the governor, and AB 1753 was signed Sept. 26 as part of a 10-bill gun package.

Because AB 458 never reached a final enrollment, only its introduced-version framing is verified; any amendments that might have reshaped the guidelines did not produce a chaptered statute. The Public Contract Code remains unchanged on this subject.

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