Pen. Code, § 26400 · Article 1. Crime of Carrying an Unloaded Firearm that is not a Handgun
Pen. Code, § 26400
Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
(a) A person is guilty of carrying an unloaded firearm that is not a handgun when that person carries upon his or her person an unloaded firearm that is not a handgun outside a vehicle while in any of the following areas:
(1) An incorporated city or city and county.
(2) A public place or a public street in a prohibited area of an unincorporated area of a county.
(b) (1) Except as specified in paragraph (2), a violation of this section is a misdemeanor.
(2) A violation of subdivision (a) is punishable by imprisonment in a county jail not exceeding one year, or by a fine not to exceed one thousand dollars ($1,000), or by both that fine and imprisonment, if the firearm and unexpended ammunition capable of being discharged from that firearm are in the immediate possession of the person and the person is not in lawful possession of that firearm.
(c) (1) Nothing in this section shall preclude prosecution under Chapter 2 (commencing with Section 29800) or Chapter 3 (commencing with Section 29900) of Division 9, Section 8100 or 8103 of the Welfare and Institutions Code, or any other law with a penalty greater than is set forth in this section.
(2) The provisions of this section are cumulative and shall not be construed as restricting the application of any other law. However, an act or omission punishable in different ways by different provisions of law shall not be punished under more than one provision.
(d) Notwithstanding the fact that the term “an unloaded firearm that is not a handgun” is used in this section, each individual firearm shall constitute a distinct and separate offense under this section.
Notes and commentary — not statutory text
History
Amended by Stats. 2017, Ch. 734, Sec. 3. (AB 7) Effective January 1, 2018.
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=26400.
- Text hash
- sha256 7686f71d11b445509fae662c3a3a8e71a73c57ef77edff5af46b21d167b90a30
- Composed by
- 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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