---
type: "Bill"
title: "Firearms: unsafe handguns."
description: "Existing law, subject to exceptions, generally makes it an offense to manufacture or sell an unsafe handgun, as defined, and requires the Department of Justice to compile a roster listing all of the handguns that have been tested and determined not to be unsafe handguns. Existing law establishes criteria for determining if a handgun is an unsafe handgun, including, for firearms manufactured after a certain date and not already listed on the roster, the lack of a chamber load indicator, magazine disconnect mechanism, and technology that transfers a microscopic array of characters from the firearm to the cartridge case when the firearm is fired, known as a microstamp. Existing law requires the microstamp to be transferred to the cartridge upon firing and to be imprinted in 2 or more places on the internal working parts of the handgun."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20192020"
identifier: "AB 2847"
citation: "California AB 2847 (20192020)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Firearms: unsafe handguns."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Chiu"]
version_count: 7
action_count: 26
vote_count: 8
first_action: "2020-02-20"
last_action: "2020-09-29"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/eb9290bc-4d5a-44f6-a18c-f506535e09f3"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB2847"
source_hash: "a067f3c028dd6ad780793397c81f87eb5a733fe61fc9ad6fe21dfbf885afb554"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ca"]
---

# California AB 2847 (20192020) — Firearms: unsafe handguns.

Existing law, subject to exceptions, generally makes it an offense to manufacture or sell an unsafe handgun, as defined, and requires the Department of Justice to compile a roster listing all of the handguns that have been tested and determined not to be unsafe handguns. Existing law establishes criteria for determining if a handgun is an unsafe handgun, including, for firearms manufactured after a certain date and not already listed on the roster, the lack of a chamber load indicator, magazine disconnect mechanism, and technology that transfers a microscopic array of characters from the firearm to the cartridge case when the firearm is fired, known as a microstamp. Existing law requires the microstamp to be transferred to the cartridge upon firing and to be imprinted in 2 or more places on the internal working parts of the handgun.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **02/20/20 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB2847&version=20190AB284799INT)
2. **05/04/20 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB2847&version=20190AB284798AMD)
3. **05/07/20 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB2847&version=20190AB284797AMD)
4. **07/02/20 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB2847&version=20190AB284796AMD)
5. **09/29/20 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB2847&version=20190AB284794CHP)
6. **AB2847** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB2847)
7. **09/01/20 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB2847&version=20190AB284795ENR)

## Votes

- Do pass — **5–2** (pass) · upper
- AB 2847 Chiu Assembly Third Reading — **52–20** (pass) · lower
- AB 2847 Chiu Concurrence in Senate Amendments — **52–19** (pass) · lower
- Do pass. — **13–4** (pass) · lower
- Placed on suspense file — **7–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass and be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **6–1** (pass) · lower
- Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **5–2** (pass) · upper
- 3rd Reading AB2847 Chiu et al. By Wiener — **25–12** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Chiu — primary (person)
- Bauer-Kahan — coauthor (person)
- Gabriel — author (person)
- Gipson — coauthor (person)
- Gloria — coauthor (person)
- Jackson — coauthor (person)
- Mark Stone — coauthor (person)
- Muratsuchi — coauthor (person)
- Ting — coauthor (person)
- Wicks — coauthor (person)
- Wiener — coauthor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2020-02-20** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2020-02-21** From printer. May be heard in committee March 22.
- **2020-04-24** Referred to Com. on PUB. S. `referral-committee`
- **2020-05-04** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on PUB. S. Read second time and amended. `reading-1, reading-2, amendment-passage, amendment-introduction`
- **2020-05-05** Re-referred to Com. on PUB. S. `referral-committee`
- **2020-05-07** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on PUB. S. Read second time and amended. `reading-1, reading-2, amendment-passage, amendment-introduction`
- **2020-05-11** Re-referred to Com. on PUB. S. `referral-committee`
- **2020-05-20** Coauthors revised.
- **2020-05-20** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 6. Noes 1.) (May 19). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2020-06-02** In committee: Set, first hearing. Referred to APPR. suspense file. `referral-committee`
- **2020-06-03** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 13. Noes 4.) (June 3). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2020-06-04** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2020-06-11** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 52. Noes 20. Page 4827.) `passage, reading-3, reading-1`
- **2020-06-11** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2020-07-01** Referred to Com. on PUB. S. `referral-committee`
- **2020-07-02** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on PUB. S. `reading-1, reading-2, amendment-passage, referral-committee, amendment-introduction`
- **2020-08-01** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 5. Noes 2.) (July 31). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2020-08-13** In committee: Referred to APPR. suspense file. `referral-committee`
- **2020-08-20** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 5. Noes 2.) (August 20). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2020-08-20** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2020-08-28** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 25. Noes 12. Page 4402.). `passage, reading-3, reading-1`
- **2020-08-28** In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending.
- **2020-08-30** Senate amendments concurred in. To Engrossing and Enrolling. (Ayes 52. Noes 19. Page 5355.). `amendment-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2020-09-11** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 3 p.m.
- **2020-09-29** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2020-09-29** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 292, Statutes of 2020.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/eb9290bc-4d5a-44f6-a18c-f506535e09f3`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).