CA DOJ’s “Assault Weapon” Registration Webpage Crashing

CA DOJ’s “Bullet-Button Assault Weapon” Registration Webpage Continually Crashing And Preventing Gun Owners from Complying with California Law

Friday, June 29, 2018—California gun owners have only days to register any firearms now classified as an “assault weapon” under Senate Bill No. 880 (“SB 880”) and Assembly Bill No. 1135 (“AB 1135”). All registration applications must be completed and submitted before 11:59 on Saturday, June 30, 2018.

To do so, applications must be submitted online using DOJ’s “California Firearms Application Reporting System” or “CFARS” for short. But with the registration deadline close-at-hand, it appears CFARS is unable to handle the amount of traffic and is consistently crashing or otherwise preventing gun owners from submitting any applications.

Given the serious problems currently facing CFARS, if you intend to register, it is recommended that you maintain detailed records of your registration attempts, including screenshots, pictures, or videos, indicating the date and time of your attempts. And should you be unable to register your firearms before the deadline due to CFARS being inaccessible or otherwise offline, please send an email to contact@CRPA.org.

In the meantime, if possible, you should disassemble your firearm by completely separating the upper and lower receivers, until you receive confirmation from DOJ that your registration was accepted or that you will be allowed to resubmit it after the deadline, due to the website crashing. CRPA and NRA will work with DOJ in the coming days to determine what is to be done with people in this position.

Please also note that NRA and CRPA have produced several webinars discussing the potential pitfalls when submitting registration applications, as well as the application procedure itself. NRA and CRPA have also produced webinars discussing potential alternatives to registration, including making a firearm “California compliant” or “featureless” to avoid the “assault weapon” classification.