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CCW Santa Clara County CCW Thread

FYI. Renewal data point. I just did my first CCW renewal. Total costs was $751.38
1) SCSO fees 464.38
2) Saber Tactics Class and range fee for Los Altos 287

The pickup time will be tricky bc a lot of the slots are full and I'll have to wait until march...and I don't know my days off that far in advance.

I really enjoyed the Saber Tactics CCW process and instructors. First class and good guys all the way. I also appreciate the online modules you can do on your own time vs, sitting in long ass classes fighting to stay awake.

I was caught off guard by the one handed shooting portion. Stupid me, I should have read the most recent county requirements. But I train one handed occasionally so no big deal.

I was alarmed at some of the poor gun handling and poor shooting. Some people obviously don't train enough and I saw some folks being definitely unsafe in their handling (lack of gun handling time). The most alarming thing I saw was people who could barely rack the slide (and some riding it forward inducting malfunction) and limp writing (I saw a few instances where people would jam their gun every round of shooting, yikes). All these things I saw on my initial ccw course, a modification qual (where I had to be there to change guns on my card), and on my renewal. Well, we all gotta work on our shooting skills.
 
I received two identical Emails from SCC Sheriff yesterday addressed to "applicant". However, I am not an applicant at this point. I am presuming we all got this?

Dear Applicant,
Effective January 1, 2026, Assembly Bill 1078 amended California statutes regulating CCW licenses. Please be advised that the restrictions associated with your CCW license have been updated to reflect these changes in law.
Take care,
CCW UNIT
 
Yeah, I'm sure we all got them. It's just a public bulletin to make sure we're aware of the conditions changed with AB-1078.
 
Yeah. Now no more speculating and arguing ….
  • The alteration of any previously approved firearm including, but not limited to adjusting the trigger pull, or modifications beyond sight and grip upgrades shall void any license and serve as grounds for revocation.
 
Yeah. Now no more speculating and arguing ….
  • The alteration of any previously approved firearm including, but not limited to adjusting the trigger pull, or modifications beyond sight and grip upgrades shall void any license and serve as grounds for revocation.
That's been the policy for at least 1 year but as others have pointed out they're not checking your guns so how would they know that you modified it after getting it approved?
 
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The "previously approved" wording seems reasonable to me.
They're not being anal like other IA's which allow NO mods from factory configuration.

They're just saying, once you qualify with a firearm, it must be in mostly identical configuration.

Would be interesting if one could request to update the SAME firearm f it's been modified?
 
As I have said before, the only "rule" an IA should have is "Must follow current California law"- and they shouldn't have to post even that because, ya know, its already the LAW. They need to stay out, way way out of being "retail police" and go chase bad guys instead.
 
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I submitted my application for a new CCW today expecting to have to wait several months for an interview and was pleasantly surprised to schedule one for February 3rd.
After getting the interview scheduled for less than a month after applying and having every step after that fly by I seem to have hit a wall after the livescan.
  • Interview 2/3/26
  • Psych eval scheduled on 2/4/26 for 2/11
  • Psych eval completed 2/11, followup interview scheduled for 2/16
  • Interview completed 2/16, cleared for livescan on 2/20
  • Livescan completed at SCSO 2/24/26, CA and FBI checks completed the same day, Firearms portion completed 3/11
Saber Tactics is fully booked through April so it looks like it'll probably be ~5/23/36 before I can finish up Step 3 of the application process.

Disappointing after such a quick start.

EDIT: Squeaky wheel gets the grease, I emailed today asking about the status and just got the training required email and I may have signed up for training before getting that go ahead...
 
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On the subject of modifications, has anyone replaced their magazine release with a larger one and is this approved?
 
Updated timeline now that I'm done:
  • Applied 1/9/26
  • Interview 2/3/26
  • Psych eval scheduled on 2/4/26 for 2/11/26
  • Psych eval completed 2/11/26, follow-up interview scheduled for 2/16/26
  • Interview completed 2/16/26, cleared for livescan on 2/20/26
  • Livescan completed at SCSO 2/24/26
  • Approved for training 3/24/26
  • Live fire qual with Saber Tactics 3/28/26
  • Qual paperwork uploaded 4/2/26
  • References called 4/8/26
  • Permit approved 4/10/26
  • Permit picked up 4/23/26
105 days start to finish, $1,971.02 total cost.
 
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question on renewal, mine was issued in Jan 25, when do i need to start applying to renew.
 
On the subject of modifications, has anyone replaced their magazine release with a larger one and is this approved?
For a carry gun, this is not advised.... just sayin' Save those mods for the gaming guns and range toys, imho.
 
For a carry gun, this is not advised.... just sayin' Save those mods for the gaming guns and range toys, imho.
I agree. It has to be usable at minimum but increased height makes it easier to activate by accident. On my personal guns, the larger mag releases are a few millimeters.

The amount of times I've seen in competition someone building their grip and dropping their mag is non-zero.
 
Has anyone done a modification recently? Just trying to get an idea of the timeline.
 
Not sure if this was mentioned in previous threads, but I did a CCW modification yesterday and found out there is now a 1 handed draw & shoot.

"Drawing from the holster and utilizing only the strong-side hand, the shooter will fire 5 rounds in 15 seconds."

Easy but just a heads up for anyone doing their proficiency qualification soon.
 
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