In buying this fancy guide rod for my Walther PDP pistol — it’s a pretty good upgrade for about $100 by the way, similar in effect to having an integral comp — I had my first experience buying something online under California’s ridiculous new AB 1263 regime that adds hurdles to the process of buying gun parts.
I found it on eBay and bought it, hoping that maybe I’d get lucky and the seller wouldn’t know about our latest unconstitutional law. No such luck.
I got the following message.
At this point, I appreciate that the seller is trying to serve Californians at all. Many others, including some major manufacturers and retailers are refusing to do so. They’re either too intimidated to figure out how the law works or they’re just over California’s bullshit and only ship parts to FFLs now to let them deal with it.
As the email indicated, I had to fill out the bottom of this form and sign, then scan it and send it to them.
I also had to scan a copy of my driver’s license and send that as well. And the address on the driver’s license must match the shipping address or they can’t send it to me. Thankfully, the address on my DL is current. Once that’s done, they’ll ship the item to me with adult signature-on-delivery required.
But…because the rod arrived two days early, I wasn’t home. The post office couldn’t just leave it, so they left a notice to reschedule the delivery. I tried that, setting the second delivery attempt for the following day.
And…nothing happened. The online tracking status just said “delivery scheduled,” even after the rescheduled day came and went. So yesterday I went to the post office and picked the guide rod up from directly. All of this over a deadly item like a damned guide rod.
That’s where we are here now in California. And the Ninth Circuit won’t care because as they see it, none of this is a “meaningful constraint” on the right to keep and bear arms. But God forbid anyone ask people to show an ID when they vote.
Kostas Moros is Director of Legal Research and Education for the Second Amendment Foundation.