Chapter 1 - Miscellaneous Rules Relating to Carrying Firearms

Sections (2)

Amended by Stats. 2011, Ch. 15, Sec. 542. (AB 109) Effective April 4, 2011. Amending action operative October 1, 2011, by Sec. 636 of Ch. 15, as amended by Stats. 2011, Ch. 39, Sec. 68. Section operative January 1, 2012, pursuant to Stats. 2010, Ch. 711, Sec. 10.

(a)A person commits criminal possession of a firearm when the person carries a firearm in a public place or on any public street while masked so as to hide the person’s identity.

(b)Criminal possession of a firearm is punishable by imprisonment pursuant to subdivision (h) of Section 1170 or by imprisonment in a county jail not to exceed one year.

(c)Subdivision (a) does not apply to any of the following:

(1)A peace officer in performance of the officer’s duties.

(2)A full-time paid peace officer of another state or the federal

government who is carrying out official duties while in this state.

(3)Any person summoned by any of the officers enumerated in paragraph (1) or (2) to assist in making an arrest or preserving the peace while that person is actually engaged in assisting that officer.

(4)The possession of an unloaded firearm or a firearm loaded with blank ammunition by an authorized participant in, or while rehearsing for, a motion picture, television, video production, entertainment event, entertainment activity, or lawfully organized and conducted activity when the participant lawfully uses the firearm as part of that production, event, or activity.

(5)The possession of a firearm by a licensed hunter while actually engaged in lawful hunting, or while going directly to or returning directly from the hunting

expedition.

§ 25350

Added by Stats. 2023, Ch. 249, Sec. 7. (SB 2) Effective January 1, 2024.

(a)If any section, subdivision, paragraph, subparagraph, sentence, clause, or phrase of any provision in this division is for any reason held unconstitutional, that decision does not affect the validity of any other provision in the division. The Legislature hereby declares that it would have passed the provisions listed in this division and each chapter, section, subdivision, paragraph, subparagraph, sentence, clause, and phrase of those provisions irrespective of the fact that any one or more other sections, subdivisions, paragraphs, subparagraphs, sentences, clauses, or phrases be declared unconstitutional.

(b)If any application of any provision in this division to

any person, group of persons, or circumstances is found by a court to be invalid or unconstitutional, the remaining applications of that provision to all other persons and circumstances shall be severed and shall not be affected. All constitutionally valid applications of this division shall be severed from any applications that a court finds to be invalid, leaving the valid applications in force, because it is the Legislature’s intent and priority that the valid applications be allowed to stand alone. Even if a reviewing court finds a provision of this division to impose an unconstitutional burden in a large or substantial fraction of relevant cases, the applications that do not present an unconstitutional burden shall be severed from the remaining applications and shall remain in force, and shall be treated as if the Legislature had enacted a statute limited to the persons, group of persons, or

circumstances for which the statute’s application does not present an unconstitutional burden. If any court declares or finds a provision of this division facially unconstitutional, when discrete applications of that provision can be enforced against a person, group of persons, or circumstances without violating the United States Constitution and the California Constitution, those applications shall be severed from all remaining applications of the provision, and the provision shall be interpreted as if the Legislature had enacted a provision limited to the persons, group of persons, or circumstances for which the provision’s application will not violate the United States Constitution and the California Constitution.