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The California Roster of Handguns Certified for Sale is simply a short list of handguns you can buy in California from an FFL.
An easy way of putting this is that if the handgun you want isn’t on the roster, then you can’t transfer it through an FFL unless you are buying it from another California resident
This means no ordering online and having it shipped to your local FFL. No having the FFL order it for you. No having your friend buy one and sending it to the FFL.
The only way around the roster is to find a California resident that owns the gun you want and make a private sale for it, or be exempt yourself from the roster — and that’s LEO only.
Note that this only applies to handguns, long guns and shotguns do not have a roster.
You can see the list here along with their legalese.
On the surface, it might sound fine…it’s a list of vetted guns that have passed some additional safety tests. But since the roster has existed, massive amounts of handguns have been removed by the DOJ.
Once you dig down to it, it makes it hard for manufacturers to create new firearms that meet the demands of the roster. And how are other states allowing all the other types of handguns if they are not “safe.”
Now the only way to obtain an off-list handgun is to buy it through a private party transfer. And because of this, you’ll see that the prices of these guns are much higher than the standard prices elsewhere in the country.
Police officers are still able to purchase off-list handguns.
There are no exceptions made for military members either current or retired.
If you’re working within the bounds of what is on the roster, you might want to know what are some of the best and some of our favorites. So of course, we got you covered.
These aren’t in a particular order or grouping, just some of the guns we recommend the most that are on the roster.
If you’re working within the bounds of what is on the roster, you might want to know what are some of the best and some of our favorites. So of course, we got you covered.
These aren’t in a particular order or grouping, just some of the guns we recommend the most that are on the roster.
Handguns available for sale in California can be found in California’s Roster of Certified Handguns. To make it on the roster, it must abide by California’s Unsafe Handgun Act. For revolvers, this means a safety test conducted by one of two approved laboratories. For semiautomatic centerfire handguns in addition to the safety test, they must have the following features: loaded chamber indicator, magazine disconnect, and microstamping. Microstamping is a feature in which the handgun must stamp the handgun’s make, model, and serial number onto the cartridge. It is this requirement that has prevented new semi-automatic handgun models after 2013 to be sold, because it is technologically impractical for firearm manufacturers to implement, and it can’t be certified by California’s safety standards. To date, no manufacturers offer this feature.
California’s restrictive compliance has weaned out handgun models introduced after 2013. As each year passes, the handgun roster shrinks as manufacturers discontinue a model or the models inexplicably are removed from the roster.
Despite having a limited and dated quantity of pistols to choose from, I’ve gathered a list of my favorite handguns (in no particular order).
