Pen. Code, § 25200 · Chapter 3. Storage of Firearm Where Child Obtains Access and Carries Firearm Off-Premises
Pen. Code, § 25200
Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
(a) If all of the following conditions are satisfied, a person shall be punished by imprisonment in a county jail not exceeding one year, by a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars ($1,000), or by both that imprisonment and fine:
(1) The person keeps a firearm, loaded or unloaded, within any premises that are under the person’s custody or control.
(2) The person knows or reasonably should know that a child is likely to gain access to that firearm without the permission of the child’s parent or legal guardian, or that a person prohibited from possessing a firearm or deadly weapon pursuant to state or federal law is likely to gain access to the firearm.
(3) The child or the prohibited person obtains access to that firearm and thereafter carries that firearm off-premises.
(b) If all of the following conditions are satisfied, a person shall be punished by imprisonment in a county jail not exceeding one year, by a fine not exceeding five thousand dollars ($5,000), or by both that imprisonment and fine:
(1) The person keeps any firearm within any premises that are under the person’s custody or control.
(2) The person knows or reasonably should know that a child is likely to gain access to the firearm without the permission of the child’s parent or legal guardian, or that a person prohibited from possessing a firearm or deadly weapon pursuant to state or federal law is likely to gain access to the firearm.
(3) The child or the prohibited person obtains access to the firearm and thereafter carries that firearm off-premises to any public or private preschool, elementary school, middle school, high school, or to any school-sponsored event, activity, or performance, whether occurring on school grounds or elsewhere.
(c) A firearm that a child or prohibited person gains access to and carries off-premises in violation of this section shall be deemed “used in the commission of any misdemeanor as provided in this code or any felony” for the purpose of Section 29300 regarding the authority to confiscate firearms and other deadly weapons as a nuisance.
(d) As used in this section, “off-premises” means premises other than the premises where the firearm was stored.
Notes and commentary — not statutory text
History
Amended by Stats. 2019, Ch. 840, Sec. 8. (SB 172) Effective January 1, 2020.
Source of truth
- Edition
- As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
- Official file
- https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PEN§ionNum=25200.
- Text hash
- sha256 7b9f5f2d621a2521d125e65afa4eea788ba78466ed84b1db046a920e5ffe2cd7
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- compose_ca.py 2026-10-22: the Legislative Counsel's CAML content files read by a tokenizer (caml_readers.reader_a); an independent xml.etree reading (caml_readers.reader_b) agrees on every section
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