18+ Content Warning

By clicking Enter, you confirm you are 18 years of age or older and agree to comply with all applicable local, state, and federal laws.

Notice: Any content or member activity - including anything you may buy, sell, transfer, or discuss - must comply with current and upcoming laws.

Members are encouraged to stay informed: California Firearm Laws: 2026 Outlook & 2025 Recap . Responsibility for compliance rests solely with the individual member.

caguns.net

Welcome to CAguns.net!
Join our growing community where you can ask questions, share knowledge, or browse our classifieds section.

Sign up for a free account today and unlock full access! Once registered, you can search, post, and take advantage of exclusive features unavailable to guests.

A note on why more of the site now requires an account: automated scrapers and AI systems have been crawling our forums and classifieds at a scale. Requiring sign-in for those sections is the most effective tool we have. It takes a minute to register, it's free, and it keeps what happens here between actual members.

New to California gun ownership or trying to keep up with the changing laws? Check out our sister site CA2A.com — free courses, plain-English legal updates, and step-by-step guides built for California owners.

Advanced features are available only to registered members. Register today!

AWB: Handguns + chassis - magazine in grip??

New_Spin

Active member
Messages
100
So between watching a few of Reno May's videos on AOW's, AWB stuff etc, and other research...
I've seen mention of magzines that attach outside/inside of the pistol grip.
And I'm just looking for clarification that if you have a pistol that only takes magazines IN the grip (like a regular handgun, one that's on the Roster), does that at least eleviate falling into AWB territory on some things like pistol chassis/braces?

Per PC § 30515:
  • A semiautomatic pistol that does not have a fixed magazine but has any one of the following: (A) A threaded barrel, capable of accepting a flash suppressor, forward handgrip, or silencer; (B) A second handgrip; (C) A shroud that is attached to, or partially or completely encircles, the barrel that allows the bearer to fire the weapon without burning the bearer's hand, except a slide that encloses the barrel; (D) The capacity to accept a detachable magazine at some location outside of the pistol grip.
I know generally the whole chassis/pistol brace debate is a gray area, and I've asked a similar question once before on here in general terms of legality.
I understand some chassis systems have built-in 2nd magwells/foregrips etc, I'm NOT talking about any of those.
I'm only referring to the ones that specifically can be purchased without any of the AWB items: no foregrip, no extra magwell, no barrel shroud.
Like the Strike Industries SMC Bravo chassis in its base configuration.

As far as I can see, per the letter of CA law (and not even all that gray in my eyes?), if one were to legally purchase a CA Roster-legal handgun such as a Springfield Echelon, and take the COG/stock slide etc and put it into a Bravo chassis it would be CA-legal
(IANAL of course)

Of course from there the further addition of a pistol brace would be the same question we've debated for years, that's never been tested...
But as far as I can tell, just the chassis itself is just as legal as any other grip module for an Echelon or P320/P365/RXM etc.?
 
IMG_2621.webp

Like this? Perfectly legal. Brace is a gray area, I use them and have never had any issues but I have also never even been pulled over let alone interacted with a cop about firearms beyond bull💩ting with one about what they carry.
 
Back
Top Bottom