Gun Rights Group Challenges California’s New Barrel Check Rules Over High Rejection Rates

September 20, 2026

The Second Amendment Foundation submitted formal comments to the California Department of Justice regarding newly proposed regulations for Senate Bill 704, a state law creating a background check requirement for firearm barrel purchases.

SB 704 is the first law in the United States to mandate background checks on firearm barrel sales. While the gun rights organization argues the statute is unconstitutional due to a lack of historical precedent, its formal comment letter targets the state’s planned rollout. Specifically, the group contends the draft rules repeat administrative issues currently affecting California’s ammunition background check system.

Under the state’s proposed framework, buyers undergo a “Standard Firearm Barrel Eligibility Check,” which queries the state’s Automated Firearms System (AFS) for a matching record. If the database finds no match, a customer may opt for a secondary “Basic Check.” However, the foundation points out that the draft rules do not require dealers or state notices to inform buyers that this second option exists.

“California already prices and papers the right to keep and bear arms nearly out of reach,” said Kostas Moros, SAF director of legal research and education, who signed the submission. “Now it wants a background check just to buy a barrel. If the Department insists on building this system, it should not copy the ammunition regime’s worst feature: rejecting tens of thousands of law-abiding people for a name or address mismatch and never telling them they can still complete a Basic Check.”

AR-15 (Unsplash)

To address the issue, the group urged state regulators to alter the rules so that failed standard checks automatically roll over into basic checks. Alternatively, they suggested requiring licensed dealers to inform buyers that initial database mismatches are common and do not necessarily mean an individual is legally barred from purchasing gun parts.

The organization pointed to state data disclosed in the federal lawsuit Rhode v. Bonta to support its position. According to those state records, between January and June 2023, 58,087 people failed standard ammunition checks due to file mismatches in the AFS database. During that same six-month period, 141 individuals were blocked for being legally prohibited persons, representing roughly 412 clerical rejections for every prohibited buyer intercepted. The figures showed that approximately 10% of total checks failed, and more than one-third of buyers rejected in January 2023 had still not completed a purchase five months later.

“This is yet another layer in a stack of fees, roster limits, excise taxes and paperwork that are meant to do nothing more than keep Californians from exercising their full Second Amendment rights,” said Adam Kraut, executive director of the foundation. “It’s a sad state of affairs when, by the CADOJ’s own admission, the AFS is a complete failure but that still doesn’t stop fearmongering lawmakers from continuing to implement unconstitutional laws and regulations. Unfortunately, they cannot undo an unconstitutional statute by regulation, but they can certainly stop making a bad law even worse.”

The California Department of Justice will review the public comments before issuing a final set of regulations to govern barrel sales across the state.