Cal. PEN § 20165

This is the official text of Cal. PEN § 20165, part of California’s Penal Code — defines crimes and sets criminal procedure in California.

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Official statutory text

(a) Any person who, for commercial purposes, purchases, sells, manufactures, ships, transports, distributes, or receives, by mail order or in any other manner, an imitation firearm, except as authorized by this section, is liable for a civil fine in an action brought by the city attorney or the district attorney of not more than ten thousand dollars ($10,000) for each violation.

(b) The manufacture, purchase, sale, shipping, transport, distribution, or receipt, by mail or in any other manner, of an imitation firearm is authorized if the device is manufactured, purchased, sold, shipped, transported, distributed, or received for any of the following purposes:

(1) Solely for export in interstate or foreign commerce.

(2) Solely for lawful use in theatrical productions, including motion picture, television, and stage productions.

(3) For use in a certified or regulated sporting event or competition.

(4) For use in military or civil defense activities, or ceremonial activities.

(5) For public displays authorized by public or private schools.

Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site

About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.