Pen. Code, § 33870 · Chapter 2. Return or Transfer of Firearm in Custody or Control of Court or Law Enforcement Agency
Pen. Code, § 33870
Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
(a) If a law enforcement agency determines that the applicant is the legal owner of any firearm, ammunition feeding device, or ammunition deposited with the agency, that the applicant is prohibited from possessing any firearm, ammunition feeding device, or ammunition, and that the firearm, ammunition feeding device, or ammunition is otherwise legal, the applicant shall be entitled to sell or transfer the firearm, ammunition feeding device, or ammunition to a licensed firearms dealer, or licensed ammunition vendor, as applicable. If a law enforcement agency determines that the applicant is prohibited from owning or possessing any firearm, ammunition feeding device, or ammunition and the prohibition will expire on a specific ascertainable date, whether or not that date is specified in a court order, the applicant shall be entitled to have the firearm, ammunition feeding device, or ammunition stored by a licensed firearms dealer or licensed ammunition vendor, as applicable, for the duration of the prohibition period pursuant to Section 29830.
(b) If the firearm, ammunition feeding device, or ammunition has been lost or stolen, it shall be restored to the lawful owner pursuant to Section 11108.5 upon the owner’s identification of the property, proof of ownership, and proof of eligibility to possess a firearm, ammunition feeding device, or ammunition pursuant to Section 33865.
(c) This section does not prevent the local law enforcement agency from charging the rightful owner of the property the fees described in Section 33880.
(d) This section shall become operative on July 1, 2020.
Notes and commentary — not statutory text
History
Repealed and added by Stats. 2018, Ch. 780, Sec. 18. (SB 746) Effective January 1, 2019. Section operative July 1, 2020, by its own provisions.
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=33870.
- Text hash
- sha256 b392b9a0a256453c859e6c8cb9a8bd4a6427246c60756e60cef32034670a4cc9
- 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
This section cites
Provisions in this library that the text above cites, as it prints each citation. A range cited as “ss. 61.13-61.16” links its first and last provisions.
Cited by 1 provision
Provisions in this library whose text cites Pen. Code, § 33870. Each shows the citation as that text prints it.
Welfare and Institutions Code
Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.