--- type: "Bill" title: "Firearms: transfers." description: "Existing law generally requires any person who sells, leases, or transfers firearms to be a licensed dealer, as specified. Existing law exempts infrequent sales, leases, and transfers from this requirement. Existing law generally prohibits the purchase or receipt of a firearm by, or sale, transfer, or loan of a firearm, to, a person who does not have a firearm safety certificate. Existing law exempts from this requirement, the infrequent loan of a firearm. Existing law defines \"infrequent\" for purposes of this exemption to mean less than 6 handgun transactions per calendar year, or, for firearms other than handguns, an indefinite number of transactions that are \"occasional and without regularity.\"" jurisdiction: "us/states/ca" legislature: "California Legislature" session: "20192020" identifier: "SB 376" citation: "California SB 376 (20192020)" classification: ["bill"] subjects: ["Firearms: transfers."] status: "enacted" primary_sponsors: ["Portantino"] version_count: 8 action_count: 29 vote_count: 8 first_action: "2019-02-20" last_action: "2019-10-11" source: "openstates" source_identifier: "ocd-bill/4b9c2969-ea1a-4420-9155-925433fb5578" source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB376" source_hash: "866c6b97983b8c8c9fce445da1f4d53380378be842a511fd627f3c3bba06b3db" 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 SB 376 (20192020) — Firearms: transfers. Existing law generally requires any person who sells, leases, or transfers firearms to be a licensed dealer, as specified. Existing law exempts infrequent sales, leases, and transfers from this requirement. Existing law generally prohibits the purchase or receipt of a firearm by, or sale, transfer, or loan of a firearm, to, a person who does not have a firearm safety certificate. Existing law exempts from this requirement, the infrequent loan of a firearm. Existing law defines "infrequent" for purposes of this exemption to mean less than 6 handgun transactions per calendar year, or, for firearms other than handguns, an indefinite number of transactions that are "occasional and without regularity." ## Version chain The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment. 1. **02/20/19 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB376&version=20190SB37699INT) 2. **03/25/19 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB376&version=20190SB37698AMD) 3. **05/17/19 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB376&version=20190SB37697AMD) 4. **06/11/19 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB376&version=20190SB37696AMD) 5. **09/06/19 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB376&version=20190SB37695AMD) 6. **10/11/19 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB376&version=20190SB37693CHP) 7. **SB376** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB376) 8. **09/13/19 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB376&version=20190SB37694ENR) ## Votes - 3rd Reading — **26–9** (pass) · upper - SB 376 Portantino Senate Third Reading By Bauer-Kahan — **57–19** (pass) · lower - Do pass as amended — **4–2** (pass) · upper - Placed on suspense file — **6–0** (pass) · upper - Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **5–1** (pass) · upper - Do pass and be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **7–1** (pass) · lower - Unfinished Business SB376 Portantino Concurrence — **27–12** (pass) · upper - Do pass. — **14–4** (pass) · lower ## Sponsors - Portantino — primary (person) ## Timeline The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote. - **2019-02-20** Introduced. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. To print. `introduction, reading-1` - **2019-02-21** From printer. May be acted upon on or after March 23. - **2019-02-28** Referred to Com. on PUB. S. `referral-committee` - **2019-03-06** Set for hearing April 2. - **2019-03-25** From committee with author's amendments. Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on PUB. S. `reading-1, reading-2, amendment-passage, committee-passage, referral-committee` - **2019-04-02** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 5. Noes 1. Page 526.) (April 2). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage, referral-committee` - **2019-04-05** Set for hearing April 22. - **2019-04-22** April 22 hearing: Placed on APPR. suspense file. - **2019-05-10** Set for hearing May 16. - **2019-05-17** From committee: Do pass as amended. (Ayes 4. Noes 2. Page 1098.) (May 16). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage, amendment-passage` - **2019-05-17** Read second time and amended. Ordered to second reading. `amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2` - **2019-05-20** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2` - **2019-05-23** Read third time. Passed. (Ayes 26. Noes 9. Page 1251.) Ordered to the Assembly. `passage, reading-3, reading-1` - **2019-05-24** In Assembly. Read first time. Held at Desk. `reading-1` - **2019-06-06** Referred to Com. on PUB. S. `referral-committee` - **2019-06-11** From committee with author's amendments. Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on PUB. S. `reading-1, reading-2, amendment-passage, committee-passage, referral-committee` - **2019-06-25** June 25 hearing postponed by committee. - **2019-07-09** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 7. Noes 1.) (July 9). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage, referral-committee` - **2019-08-14** August 14 set for first hearing. Placed on APPR. suspense file. - **2019-08-30** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 14. Noes 4.) (August 30). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage` - **2019-09-03** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2` - **2019-09-06** Read third time and amended. `amendment-passage, reading-3, reading-1` - **2019-09-06** Ordered to third reading. - **2019-09-10** Read third time. Passed. (Ayes 57. Noes 19. Page 3267.) Ordered to the Senate. `passage, reading-3, reading-1` - **2019-09-10** In Senate. Concurrence in Assembly amendments pending. - **2019-09-11** Assembly amendments concurred in. (Ayes 27. Noes 12. Page 2843.) Ordered to engrossing and enrolling. `amendment-passage, committee-passage-favorable` - **2019-09-19** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 3 p.m. - **2019-10-11** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature` - **2019-10-11** Chaptered by Secretary of State. Chapter 738, Statutes of 2019. ## Source OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/4b9c2969-ea1a-4420-9155-925433fb5578`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).