California SB 53: Secure Gun Storage, Penalties, and Exemptions

Starting January 1, 2026, California’s SB 53 gun storage law requires every firearm kept in a residence to be locked in a DOJ-certified safety device or gun safe whenever it isn’t on your person or within immediate reach. The new Penal Code Section 25145 makes the unsecured firearm itself the violation, so you can be fined even if no one ever touches the gun. A first offense carries a fine of up to $250, a second up to $500, and a third becomes a misdemeanor that can cost you your gun rights for a decade.¹

What Counts as Securely Stored

The law recognizes two compliant storage methods: a Department of Justice-certified firearm safety device, or a gun safe that meets DOJ regulatory specifications.¹ Everyday household hardware won’t cut it. A padlock on a closet, a combination lock on a nightstand drawer, or a decorative glass-front gun cabinet all fall outside the definition.

Certified Safety Devices

A certified safety device is any lock that appears on the DOJ’s official roster of tested and approved products.² The roster covers cable locks that thread through a firearm’s action, trigger locks that block the trigger mechanism, and small lock boxes designed to fully enclose a handgun. If the device isn’t on the roster, it doesn’t satisfy the law.

Gun Safes

Compliant gun safes must meet mechanical standards that go well beyond what most consumer safes offer. The minimum requirements include walls of at least 12-gauge steel (or equivalent double-wall construction), doors made from 7-gauge steel plate, at least three half-inch steel locking bolts, drill-resistant hardened steel protecting the lock, and a combination lock with at least 10,000 possible combinations.³ Door hinges must be protected against removal through features like interlocking designs or dead bars.

Biometric and electronic-keypad safes are permitted, but only if the underlying construction meets these specifications. A fast-access biometric lock bolted to a thin-walled box won’t comply.

When You Can Keep a Gun Accessible

The law doesn’t force you to lock up a firearm you’re actively using or ready to use. Storage is only required when the gun isn’t being carried or “readily controlled” by the owner or another authorized user.¹ “Readily controlled” means one of two things: you’re carrying the firearm on your person, or you’re close enough to physically prevent an unauthorized person from reaching it.

A gun on your hip is fine. A gun on the nightstand while you sleep next to it is fine. A gun on the coffee table while you’re in the next room is a violation, and so is a gun in a dresser drawer while you’re at work.

An “authorized user” is anyone who is not legally prohibited from possessing firearms and who either owns the gun or has been given permission by the owner to access and use it.¹ If your spouse has your permission and no legal disqualifications, they can carry or control the firearm and the storage requirement is satisfied.

Penalties for an Unsecured Firearm

The base penalty structure under Section 25145 is graduated:

First violation: fine of up to $250.
Second violation: fine of up to $500.
Third or subsequent violation: misdemeanor.

Every one of these penalties can attach without any child, thief, or prohibited person ever touching the gun. The offense is the unsecured storage itself.¹

There is a safe harbor. You won’t be penalized if you stored the firearm using a device you reasonably believed met the legal requirements, such as a lock that was on the DOJ-certified roster when you bought it or a safe that met the standards at the time of purchase.¹ If the roster later changes, you don’t automatically fall out of compliance.

Stricter Rule When a Prohibited Person Lives With You

SB 53 also rewrote Penal Code Section 25135. If you’re 18 or older, live in a residence, own a firearm, and know or have reason to know that a co-resident is legally barred from possessing guns, every firearm in the home must be either securely stored or under your direct control at all times.⁴

There is no fine-first escalation here. A first violation of Section 25135 is a misdemeanor, punishable by up to one year in county jail and a fine of up to $1,000.

Higher Penalties If Someone Gets the Gun

The base fines apply when no one actually reaches your firearm. When a child or prohibited person does get their hands on it, the older criminal storage statutes take over and the consequences climb sharply.

First-degree criminal storage applies when you keep a firearm accessible, know or should know a child or prohibited person is likely to get to it, and that person obtains the firearm and causes death or great bodily injury. The penalty is 16 months, two years, or three years in state prison and a fine of up to $10,000, or alternatively up to one year in county jail and a fine of up to $1,000.⁵

Second-degree criminal storage covers cases where a child or prohibited person gets the gun and either carries it off the premises or causes injury short of “great bodily injury.” Maximum penalty: one year in county jail, a $1,000 fine, or both. Third-degree criminal storage is a misdemeanor covering access cases without those aggravating outcomes.⁵

The 10-Year Firearm Ban Behind Every Misdemeanor

This is where a storage conviction outlasts the fine. Under Penal Code Section 29805, a misdemeanor conviction under Sections 25100, 25135, or 25200 triggers a 10-year prohibition on owning, purchasing, receiving, or possessing any firearm.⁶ A third violation of the general storage rule, or a first violation of the prohibited-person rule, can strip your gun rights for a decade.

The California Department of Justice confirms that qualifying convictions under Sections 25100, 25135, and 25200 place individuals in a firearms-prohibiting category, which surfaces in federal background checks and effectively blocks firearm purchases nationwide.⁷

Exemptions

Section 25145 does not apply to unloaded antique firearms (as defined under federal law) or to firearms that are permanently inoperable.¹ A wall-mounted antique rifle that cannot fire doesn’t need to be locked up.

For the criminal storage provisions under Section 25100, additional defenses exist. The law does not apply when a child obtained the firearm through an illegal break-in, when the firearm was in fact securely stored, or when a child obtained the firearm and used it in lawful self-defense or defense of another.⁸

Peace officers and members of the U.S. Armed Forces or National Guard have a narrow exemption from criminal storage liability, but only when a child obtained the firearm during or incidental to the performance of official duties.⁸ Off-duty officers storing personal firearms at home follow the same rules as everyone else.

How the Law Has Changed

Before January 1, 2026, California’s storage-related penalties only kicked in after something went wrong. The criminal storage statutes in Sections 25100 through 25200 required a child or prohibited person to actually gain access to an unsecured firearm before any crime occurred. An unlocked gun on a kitchen counter with kids in the house wasn’t itself illegal; only the fallout from someone getting to it was punishable.

SB 53 flips that framework. Section 25145 makes the unsecured firearm the violation on its own, and the revised Section 25135 imposes an immediate misdemeanor on households where a prohibited person lives, without waiting for an access event. California now treats storage as a standalone legal obligation for every gun owner.

1
California Legislative Information. California SB 53 Firearms Storage
2
State of California – Department of Justice. Roster of Firearm Safety Devices Certified for Sale
3
State of California – Department of Justice. Regulatory Gun Safe Standards
4
California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 25135
5
California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 25100-25140
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California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 29805
7
State of California – Department of Justice. Firearms Prohibiting Categories
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California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 25105