How to Buy a Gun Online in California
Yes, a Californian can buy a gun online. The firearm just cannot arrive at your door — it goes to a licensed dealer near you, and you finish the paperwork there. This is how that works at California Gun Shop, start to finish, with the fees and the waiting period spelled out before you order anything.
The four steps
- Order and pay online. Before anything ships we check the model against California law. If it cannot legally come into the state, the listing says so and we do not take your money for it.
- We ship to the FFL dealer you name. Any licensed dealer in California can receive it. Tell us who they are at checkout, or ask us and we will point you at dealers who do transfers in your area. Parts, optics, holsters, safes and cleaning gear are not firearms and come straight to your address.
- Your dealer runs DROS. You go in with your ID, your Firearm Safety Certificate and — for a handgun — proof of California residency. The dealer submits the Dealer Record of Sale to the DOJ and the clock starts.
- You collect it after ten days. California's waiting period is ten calendar days for every buyer, every purchase. You come back, pass the safe-handling demonstration and take the firearm home.
What you need before you order
- A Firearm Safety Certificate. A 30-question written test at any licensed dealer, a small fee, valid five years. Bring it with you.
- A California driver licence or ID card. If it is not REAL ID compliant you will also need proof of lawful presence.
- Proof of residency for a handgun — a utility bill, a vehicle registration, a lease or a property deed in your name.
- A dealer who does transfers. Most do. Call first and confirm their fee and that they will accept a shipment from an out-of-store dealer.
What it costs
Our price covers the firearm and shipping to your dealer. On top of that your dealer charges their own transfer fee, usually somewhere between $50 and $100, and the state charges a DROS fee and a Firearms Safety Act fee. Those go to the dealer and to the DOJ, not to us, and your dealer will quote them to you before you start the paperwork.
Where we deliver
We are a San Diego shop and we ship to dealers in all 58 counties — Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco, Fresno, Sacramento, Long Beach, Oakland, Bakersfield, Anaheim, Santa Ana, Riverside, Stockton, Irvine, Chula Vista, Fremont, Modesto, Santa Clarita, Ontario and everywhere between. We do not have a storefront in each of those cities. What we have is a firearm waiting for you at a dealer there.
What cannot come into California at all
Magazines over ten rounds, suppressors, forced-reset and binary triggers, unserialized frames and receivers, short-barreled rifles and bump stocks cannot be sold to a California resident. Those listings carry a red Not CA legal badge on this site. If you live outside California most of them are still available to you.
Two other categories need more care than a badge can carry: handguns have to be on the California roster of certified handguns, and semi-automatic centerfire rifles have to be featureless or fixed-magazine. Ammunition has its own delivery rules.
If something is wrong, tell us before you order
A cancelled transfer wastes your time and ours. If you are not sure whether the configuration you are looking at is legal where you live, email us with the listing and we will check it against the current rules and answer you straight.
