Key Takeaways
- California’s Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 948, changing the firearm safety certificate from a written test to a four-hour class with live fire.
- The training must occur within a year before applying for a certificate starting Jan. 1, 2029, and includes safety instruction and range exercises.
- The bill also extends the reporting window for firearm importers from 60 to 180 days and requires them to certify possession of a safety certificate.
- Current gun owners are not affected, but new residents moving to California with firearms will need to complete the new training requirement.
- While the training can enhance safety, critics argue that it functions as a cost barrier to exercising a constitutional right.
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
SACRAMENTO, CA — Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed Senate Bill 948, and with it California’s firearm safety certificate stops being a written test and becomes a four-hour class with live fire on a range.
Earlier this year I covered California Bill Mandates 8-Hour Firearm Course to Buy a Gun and for New Residents Bringing Guns Into the State. Two things have changed since then. The course requirement was cut in half, from eight hours to four, in the version that reached the governor’s desk, and the bill is now law. Newsom approved SB 948 on Sept. 26, 2026, and the Secretary of State chaptered it the same day as Chapter 465, Statutes of 2026. The bill was introduced Feb. 2, 2026, by Sen. Arreguín with Sen. Richardson as coauthor. It passed the Assembly Aug. 24, cleared the Senate Aug. 25 and was enrolled Aug. 27. It amends Penal Code sections 27560, 28235 and 31615 and adds section 31640.5.
Under existing California law, anyone who purchases or receives a firearm must hold a firearm safety certificate, and a dealer who transfers a firearm to someone without one commits a misdemeanor. Getting the certificate has meant passing a Department of Justice test covering topics like the laws on carrying and handling firearms and the responsibilities of ownership.
SB 948 keeps the test and adds a classroom-and-range requirement on top of it. On or after Jan. 1, 2029, an applicant must have completed, within the prior year, a training course of at least four hours that includes instruction on firearm safety and handling and live-fire shooting exercises on a firing range. The Department of Justice is authorized to write regulations spelling out the details.
The certificate is a purchase requirement, not a carry permit. California’s concealed carry permitting runs on its own track with its own training rules, and nothing in SB 948 changes that. It also does not order every current gun owner in the state back to class. The course attaches to the certificate application, which means it lands on people acquiring a firearm on or after the 2029 date and, under a second part of the bill, on people moving into the state with guns they already own.
That second part is the piece I expect most out-of-state readers to miss. Existing law gives a personal firearm importer 60 days after bringing a firearm into California to file a report with the Department of Justice describing the owner and the gun. SB 948 stretches that window to 180 days. Starting Jan. 1, 2028, the importer must also certify under penalty of perjury that they hold a valid firearm safety certificate or qualify for an exemption. The bill prohibits bringing a firearm into the state without obtaining a certificate within 180 days, with exceptions the bill specifies, and makes a violation an infraction. Leaving required information off the report is also an infraction. The bill strips out the existing provision that deemed an importer to have complied once certain requirements were met.
So a new resident who moves in with a lawfully owned handgun will, after 2029, need to find and pay for a four-hour course with range time before the state considers them in compliance, on a 180-day clock.
I spend most of my time telling people that training and mindset matter more than the gear they buy. A four-hour block with live fire is not a bad thing on its own; plenty of new owners would benefit from exactly that. The problem is the direction the requirement runs. This is a precondition on acquiring a firearm at all, enforced by a misdemeanor for the dealer and infractions for the newcomer, with the details left to a state agency to write later. Training you seek out builds competence. Training you must buy to be allowed to exercise a right functions as a cost of entry, and the bill’s own text acknowledges the money side by letting the department seek additional appropriations if it decides existing fees will not cover implementation.
More from USA Carry:
The bill includes a severability clause, so if a court strikes one part, the rest stands. The importer certification requirement takes effect Jan. 1, 2028, the training requirement Jan. 1, 2029, and the Department of Justice still has to publish the regulations that define what a qualifying course looks like.
I will continue tracking SB 948 as the Department of Justice writes those rules and as the 2028 and 2029 dates approach.
Read the full article here
