Under California’s firearm storage law, penalties start at a $250 fine for a first offense of failing to lock up a gun in your home and escalate to felony-level criminal storage charges carrying up to three years in state prison and a $10,000 fine when an improperly stored firearm reaches a child or prohibited person and causes serious harm. The rules tightened significantly on January 1, 2026, when Penal Code Section 25145 imposed a universal duty to store every home firearm in a DOJ-certified device or gun safe whenever it is not on your person or within arm’s reach.1California Legislative Information. SB 53 – California Penal Code 25145
Fines for the Basic Storage Violation
Section 25145 penalizes the storage failure itself, whether or not anyone actually gets to the gun. The ladder is straightforward:
- First violation: fine of up to $250.
- Second violation: fine of up to $500.
- Third or subsequent violation: misdemeanor.
There is a narrow safe harbor. You will not be penalized if you reasonably believed your device or safe met DOJ requirements at the time you bought it, even if the product later comes off the roster.1California Legislative Information. SB 53 – California Penal Code 25145
Criminal Storage When Someone Gains Access
Fines under Section 25145 are only the floor. Penal Code Section 25100 creates a separate set of charges, called criminal storage, that apply when an unsecured firearm actually reaches a child under 18 or a person prohibited from possessing guns under state or federal law. There are three degrees, and the exposure differs sharply.
First Degree Criminal Storage
First-degree charges attach when you keep a firearm on premises you control, you know or should know a child or prohibited person is likely to reach it, and that person gains access and causes death or great bodily injury to themselves or anyone else.2California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 25100
This is a wobbler. Charged as a felony, it carries 16 months, two years, or three years in state prison and a fine of up to $10,000. Charged as a misdemeanor, it carries up to one year in county jail and a fine of up to $1,000.3Justia Law. California Penal Code 25100-25130 – Criminal Storage of Firearm Prosecutors weigh prior record, whether you made any effort to secure the gun, and how foreseeable the access was.
Second Degree Criminal Storage
Second-degree charges apply when a child or prohibited person gains access and causes injury short of great bodily injury, or carries the firearm into a public place, or brandishes it. It is a misdemeanor, punishable by up to one year in county jail and a fine of up to $1,000.2California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 251003Justia Law. California Penal Code 25100-25130 – Criminal Storage of Firearm
Third Degree Criminal Storage
Third-degree charges do not require any injury. You can be charged if you negligently store a firearm where you know or should know a child is likely to gain access, even if the child never actually uses the gun. It is a misdemeanor. This tier is limited to child access and does not extend to prohibited persons the way the first and second degrees do.2California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 25100
Extra Penalties If the Gun Leaves Your Property
Penal Code Section 25200 adds a separate charge when a child or prohibited person carries an improperly stored firearm off your premises. The base penalty is up to one year in county jail and a fine of up to $1,000. If the gun ends up at a school, the fine rises to $5,000.4California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 25200 These can stack on top of criminal storage charges under Section 25100.
Living With a Prohibited Person
If you share a home with someone who is barred from possessing firearms, a separate statute raises the stakes. Penal Code Section 25135 requires that, if you are 18 or older, own a firearm, and know or have reason to know another resident is prohibited, every gun in the home must be either locked in a DOJ-certified device or gun safe, or carried and readily controlled on your person.5California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 25135
A violation is a misdemeanor on its own, distinct from the Section 25100 charges. The prohibited person does not have to touch the gun for you to be charged. This affects anyone whose spouse, partner, roommate, or adult child has a felony conviction, a domestic violence restraining order, or another disqualifying condition.
What Counts as Secure Storage
Whether you have violated any of these statutes turns on the same definition. A firearm is “securely stored” only when it is kept in, locked by, or disabled with a DOJ-certified firearm safety device or a gun safe that meets the Department of Justice’s adopted standards.1California Legislative Information. SB 53 – California Penal Code 25145 The DOJ maintains a searchable roster of approved devices.6Office of the Attorney General. Roster of Firearm Safety Devices Certified for Sale If your gun came from a licensed California dealer, the lock that shipped with it likely qualifies.
The only alternative to locking is keeping the gun “readily controlled”: either on your person, or close enough that you can physically stop anyone unauthorized from reaching it.1California Legislative Information. SB 53 – California Penal Code 25145 A pistol on the nightstand while you sleep in the same room likely satisfies the proximity test. A pistol in an unlocked drawer while you are at work does not.
The older exception for storage “in a location that a reasonable person would believe to be secure” no longer exists as of 2026. If your case, cabinet, or lock is not on the DOJ roster and does not meet the gun-safe standards, it does not qualify, no matter how sturdy it seems.
Unloaded antique firearms and permanently inoperable guns are exempt from the storage duty.1California Legislative Information. SB 53 – California Penal Code 25145
When Criminal Storage Charges Do Not Apply
Section 25105 lists situations that block criminal storage liability under Section 25100:
- The child obtained the firearm only because someone broke into your home.
- The firearm was stored in a DOJ-certified safety device or qualifying gun safe.
- You or another authorized user had the gun on your person or close enough to prevent unauthorized access.
- The access happened during or related to your duties as a peace officer or member of the Armed Forces or National Guard.
- The child obtained or discharged the firearm in a lawful act of self-defense or defense of another person.
Defenses If You Are Charged
The most direct defense to a criminal storage charge is proving the firearm was in fact stored in compliance. That means documenting that your device appears on the DOJ roster or that your safe meets DOJ standards. Keeping the purchase receipt and the device’s make and model matters for exactly this reason.
The illegal-entry exception is often decisive. If your home was burglarized and the intruder took or handed off the firearm, criminal storage charges generally do not stick even if the gun was not locked at the time.7California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 25105
For first-degree charges, prosecutors must prove you knew or reasonably should have known a child or prohibited person was likely to gain access. Challenging that knowledge element can succeed when the access was genuinely unforeseeable. For third-degree charges, the state has to show negligence, so evidence that you took real, if imperfect, steps to secure the gun can undermine the case.
Because first-degree criminal storage is a wobbler, much of the defense work focuses on persuading the prosecutor or judge to treat it as a misdemeanor rather than a felony, particularly for gun owners with no prior record who cooperate with the investigation.