Help with travel in imperial county

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I frequently travel into imperial county and leave my firearm at home because I do not fully understand the carry laws in California. Can someone please explain to me what it is I need to know, if I can even carry in California, as an AZ resident. Am I limited to handguns with less than 10 capacity? Does it have to be unloaded( in Imperial)? Can I travel with it on my hip while in a vehicle? I'm sorry to have to make a post to ask these questions, but I was not succesful doing a search, nor understanding the legalease.

Specifically I travel into the impereal dunes and El Centro. Any help and info is greatly appreciated.

P.S. I'm also planing a trip into San Diego. If you know anything about that county and wouldn't mind filling me in, I would be very grateful.

Keep carrying and be safe
- Steve

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You can bring in your pistol, but the magazines must not be capable of holding more than 10 rounds, unless those magazines were lawfully possessed in California prior to the ban on January 1, 2000.

You can carry the gun in plain view, unloaded, along with loaded mags in a belt pouch, as long as you are not within 1,000 feet of a K-12 school. Day care centers and preschools are not part of the 1,000 foot exclusion zone.

You can carry the gun loaded only if you are in an unincorporated area of a county where the discharge of a firearm is lawful. You may not carry a loaded firearm in public within the limits of an incorporated city unless you are lawfully hunting in an area where hunting is permitted. You may lawfully carry a loaded firearm in your place of temporary residence such as a campsite.

You may not conceal a handgun in a vehicle or on your person without a California CCW permit. Handguns in plain view or worn openly on a belt holster are not concealed under the law.

Handguns are required to be transported unloaded in an enclosed, locked container while within 1,000 feet of a K-12 school. Ammunition may be in the same container, but it cannot be in the chamber or in a magazine inserted into the firearm.

You may not carry a gun in any state-owned park or beach, or into any court house, jail, prison, detention facility, or government building or on the grounds of any school.

If I missed anything hopefully someone else can post it.

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I really appreciate the help wewd. For now I guess I'm S.O.L. since I don't own any firearms with less than 10 capacity. I guess I have no choice but to go ahead and buy that 1911 I have been thinking about for a while.

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NY2AZ wrote:

I really appreciate the help wewd. For now I guess I'm S.O.L. since I don't own any firearms with less than 10 capacity. I guess I have no choice but to go ahead and buy that 1911 I have been thinking about for a while.

Click to expand...

You could always just buy a magazine that only holds 10 rounds, or you could modify an existing magazine by epoxying a block in the bottom that makes it hold only 10 rounds.

A lot cheaper than a new 1911, short term fix anyhow.

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If you can find 10 round mags (either there in AZ or here in CA) you should be good to go. You can also modify any high capacity magazine to hold 10 rounds as long as the modification is permanent. Most people do this by epoxying a dowel to the magazine floorplate to restrict the capacity to 10 rounds (similar to the dowel used in shotgun tubes when bird hunting, but it has to be glued in). When you go back to the Free World, you can replace the floorplate with a standard one. This is commonly done with AR-15 magazines here.