California gun owners just got something they almost never see out of Sacramento: a break.
On Bearing Arms’ Cam & Co, host Cam Edwards sat down with Rick Travis, Legislative Director for the California Rifle & Pistol Association (CRPA), to unpack what Travis is calling a “historic” moment.
Instead of ramming through another round of anti-gun laws, lawmakers have quietly killed an entire slate of major gun-control bills.
And they didn’t do it because they suddenly love the Second Amendment.
They did it because California is broke.
An Unlikely Holiday Gift From Sacramento
Cam Edwards opened the conversation by reminding viewers what California gun owners are used to.
In a normal year, he said, anti-gun lawmakers flood the Capitol with bills designed to “infringe on our right to keep and bear arms.”
Some fail, many pass, and almost all of them cost gun owners more money, more time, and more freedom.
This year looked no different at first.
Back in 2025, lawmakers introduced a stack of bills aimed at handguns, concealed carry permits, “do not sell” lists, and even the state’s version of castle doctrine.
But as Travis told Edwards, something strange happened when those bills hit the Legislature’s appropriations committees, the panels that are supposed to weigh whether there’s money to enforce new laws.
Instead of waving them through like usual, lawmakers started saying the one word California almost never uses as an excuse to stop gun control.
“No.”
Eight Anti-Gun Bills Vanish Overnight
Travis told Edwards that California works on a two-year session.
Bills introduced in the first (odd-numbered) year can be stopped in appropriations but then revived in January of the second year with almost no warning.
That January “zombie window” is usually a nightmare for CRPA.
Gun owners are distracted by the holidays, he said, and anti-gun lawmakers quietly haul bad bills out of the grave for one last sprint.
So Travis started doing what he always does: calling offices and asking, “Are you bringing this back as a two-year bill?”
First up was State Senator Catherine Blakespear, who had pushed Senate Bill 15, which Travis describes as one of the most egregious anti-gun bills of the year.
Her office surprised him.
According to Travis, staff told him, “No, no, no, that bill’s dead.”
When he pressed them and asked why, they didn’t give him some grand speech about rights or fairness.
They said, “We don’t have money.”
Travis admitted he laughed at first.
He told Edwards that California is always “billions of dollars in debt” and yet anti-gun bills somehow still pass.
This time, though, staffers insisted they were serious. No money. No bill.
A Wave Of Defeats For The Gun-Control Crowd
After hearing that, Travis didn’t stop.
He went to another major anti-gun office – a lawmaker who had carried a bill numbered 1333.
He explained to Edwards that this measure targeted castle doctrine, the basic legal protection that allows people to defend themselves in their own homes.
Travis said he was determined to make sure Assemblyman’s staff knew CRPA was watching and ready to fight if they tried to revive it.
Instead, the legislative director told him something he never expected to hear:
“CRPA should have nothing to worry about from our office in ’26.”
Travis told Edwards that triggered a full sprint.
He started calling and checking on all of the major anti-gun bills stuck in the two-year file.
Within a couple of days, he realized the scale of what had happened.
According to Travis, all eight major anti-2A bills were dead, including:
- An “unsafe handgun” bill that would further tighten the already notorious roster
- A “maligned concealed carry” bill, SB 1006, designed to make permits even harder and more expensive
- A firearm safety certificate bill that would pile more burdens on gun buyers
- The castle doctrine attack (1333)
- An “intimidation bill” aimed at new gun owners and people inheriting firearms
- A “do not sell” list bill that could strip rights based on vague criteria
Travis said it wasn’t just gun bills.
He told Edwards that hundreds of bills across the spectrum were suddenly thrown out of the appropriations file with the same explanation: “We don’t have the money.”
For California gun owners, that fiscal panic turned into an early Christmas gift.
California’s Fiscal Cliff Meets Gun Control
Edwards was thrilled with the outcome but also cautious.
On one hand, he called it “good news” and even “historic” given California’s track record.
On the other hand, he pointed out that if lawmakers are killing bills purely because the state is sliding toward a fiscal cliff, that’s a warning sign too.
Travis agreed.
He said the state’s budget numbers have been “all over the map” – with estimates bouncing from a $2 billion problem to $30 billion to maybe $100 billion.
That kind of chaos, he said, “tells you a lot about how this state is ran.”
In his view, the sudden resistance to expensive gun-control bills isn’t a change of heart.
It’s a political calculation.
Travis suggested that Governor Gavin Newsom’s presidential ambitions play a role here too.
He told Edwards he could easily see Newsom thinking, “We don’t have to pass these, we don’t have the money. It’s a win-win for me.”
No new anti-gun laws means fewer headlines about “overreach,” but he can still blame budget constraints instead of stepping away from gun control in principle.
To Travis, that’s not exactly comforting.
It just means the attack is on pause, not over.
Why 2026 Might Be Quiet – And 2027 Brutal
Both Edwards and Travis talked about the timing.
2026 is an election year. Campaigns need cash.
Travis says he’s seen the funding streams for national gun-control groups shrink, especially after federal money tied to those efforts got cut.
He told Edwards that he used to walk into Capitol hearings and see 60 or 70 paid activists, many of them women funded by national organizations, lobbying against gun rights.
Now, he says, he often sees around five. That changes the optics in a hearing room. It also changes where politicians go looking for money.
Travis says lawmakers are flocking to other hot issues – housing, oil, and big-ticket environmental fights – where the checks are bigger and the donors are more active right now.
In his view, that might give gun owners a bit of breathing room in 2026.
But he doesn’t think that lull will last.
Travis warned Edwards that if this really is a quiet year on gun bills, it’s likely because anti-gun groups are rebuilding and reloading.
By 2027, he expects many of those same lawmakers will be safely re-elected and “have nothing to lose with being obnoxious.”
That’s when he fears a brutal new wave of bills could hit.
If California gun owners treat this year like a permanent victory, he suggested, they’ll be blindsided later.
The Fight Moves To City Halls And County Boards
Edwards then asked an important follow-up: if big state bills are slowing down, will gun control just shift somewhere else?
Travis thinks so.
He told Edwards he expects “much more fights at the local level” – especially on storage laws, where you can and can’t carry, and local zoning aimed at pushing gun stores out of communities.
That’s a national pattern.
California doesn’t have a strong firearms preemption law like most states, which means cities and counties can already pass their own gun restrictions.
Edwards pointed out that the gun-control lobby is working hard to weaken or repeal preemption in other states too.
He mentioned Colorado, where preemption was scrapped, and Virginia, where it was watered down and could be removed completely once Democrats hold full control.
Travis added that big national groups like Giffords and Brady aren’t just playing in California.
He said they take tactics tested in Sacramento – like burying local gun rules in obscure public notices – and export them to other states, especially across the West and the Rockies.
He warned that people in “redder” states who once said, “We’re not California, it won’t happen here,” are now starting to see familiar tricks in their own backyards.
In my view, that’s the real strategic lesson in all this.
The gun-control movement is learning to fight on 50,000 little fronts instead of one big one.
If gun owners only watch what happens in the state capitol, they’ll miss the slow drip of local restrictions until it’s too late.
A Rare Win: CRPA’s CCW Bill Survives
Amid all the bad bills that died, Travis told Edwards there was one more surprise:
A pro-gun bill backed by CRPA is still alive.
He pointed to Assembly Bill 1092, a CRPA-supported measure that would extend California concealed carry permits from two years to four years.
That change would cut down on renewal fees, paperwork, and hassle for ordinary gun owners – especially in counties where the process is already painfully slow and expensive.
Travis said AB 1092 survived as a two-year bill and is still moving, even as eight anti-gun bills were dropped.
To him, that felt “historic” in its own right.
He and CRPA are also working with authors on several “aggressive” new pro-2A bills for 2026, though he told Edwards they’re waiting on bill numbers before going public with the details.
Meanwhile, CRPA continues to fight outrageous CCW costs in some counties, where Edwards noted that total fees and training can climb toward $2,000 just to exercise a constitutional right.
That combination — killing bad bills while keeping a good one alive – is something California gun owners almost never see.
It’s not a revolution.
It’s not the end of gun control in the Golden State.
But it is a real, concrete win.
Enjoy The Gift – But Don’t Fall Asleep
As Edwards wrapped up the show, he treated this moment like what it is: an early Christmas present for California gun owners.
No new statewide gun-control bills from last session.
A promising CCW bill still on the table.
And a rare example of Sacramento saying “no” to the gun-control lobby, even if only for budget reasons.
At the same time, both he and Travis were clear: this is not the moment to relax.
If anything, it’s the moment to get more organized, especially at the local level, where city councils and county boards can slip gun rules into the fine print of a utility bill insert.
From my perspective, this is the kind of “pause” that often tricks people into thinking the fight is over.
It isn’t.
California’s fiscal mess accidentally gave gun owners a break.
What they do with that breathing room – building networks, showing up locally, supporting groups like CRPA, and watching for the next wave in 2027 – will decide whether this early Christmas present becomes a turning point or just a brief, lucky calm before the next storm.
UP NEXT: “Heavily Armed” — See Which States Are The Most Strapped
Image Credit: Survival World
Americans have long debated the role of firearms, but one thing is sure — some states are far more armed than others. See where your state ranks in this new report on firearm ownership across the U.S.
The article California gun owners just got an early Christmas present first appeared on Survival World.
A former park ranger and wildlife conservationist, Lisa’s passion for survival started with her deep connection to nature. Raised on a small farm in northern Wisconsin, she learned how to grow her own food, raise livestock, and live off the land. Lisa is our dedicated Second Amendment news writer and also focuses on homesteading, natural remedies, and survival strategies. Lisa aims to help others live more sustainably and prepare for the unexpected.
