California AB 1263: What Merchants Selling Firearms Accessories Need to Know Before January 1, 2026

On October 11, 2025, California enacted AB 1263, a new regulation that significantly changes how firearms accessories may be sold and shipped to California customers. Starting January 1, 2026, merchants selling accessories direct to California should begin preparing now to avoid shipment interruptions, customer service issues, and lost revenue.

Many merchants are unaware of how broad this change is, or how operationally complex it can become without the right systems in place. This article breaks down what the law requires, what products are impacted , and what practical steps merchants should be taking today.

What Is Changing on January 1, 2026 Beginning January 1, 2026, any order containing a regulated firearms accessory shipped to a California address must complete specific steps before it can be shipped.

For each applicable order, merchants must:

Display the California Manufacturing Notice Buyers must be shown a state-mandated notice related to unlawful firearm manufacturing. Record the Buyer’s Acknowledgment The buyer must confirm they received and understand the notice, and that acknowledgment must be tied to the specific order for audit purposes. Collect Proof of Age Merchants must collect proof that the buyer is 18 years or older, using a government-issued photo ID that clearly shows date of birth. Self-reported dates of birth are not sufficient. For eCommerce merchants, these steps must occur before shipment, not after the order leaves the warehouse.

Additional Shipping and Delivery Requirements In addition to the pre-shipment requirements above, merchants and fulfillment teams must also ensure that:

Packages are conspicuously labeled with: “Signature and proof of identification of persons aged 18 years or older required for delivery.” The shipping address matches the purchaser’s identification The purchaser presents valid identification and a signature at delivery These delivery requirements typically involve coordination between fulfillment teams and shipping carriers , but they are still the merchant’s responsibility to enforce.

What Counts as a Firearms Accessory Under AB 1263 One of the most important and frequently misunderstood aspects of AB 1263 is how broadly firearms accessories are defined.

The law covers any device, tool, kit, part, or parts set that is clearly designed and intended for use in manufacturing or assembling firearms. This includes items that may not have previously been regulated in this way.

Examples include:

Charger loaders Barrel shrouds and handguards Flash suppressors Folding stocks Forward pistol grips Magazine couplers or clamps Magazine pulls Manufacturing tools and parts used to assemble firearms Pistol grips Speed loaders Stripper clips Telescoping or collapsible stocks Threaded barrels Thumbhole stocks Vertical handgrips Because these items are now treated as regulated firearms accessories for California sales, any order containing one or more of them shipped to a California address must meet the new notice, acknowledgment, and proof-of-age requirements before shipment.

Because of the breadth of the definition, many merchants will need to re-evaluate product classification and tagging across their catalogs.

Why This Matters Operationally For many merchants, California represents a significant portion of firearms-related revenue.

Without proper preparation, AB 1263 introduces several risks:

Orders blocked from shipment due to missing documentation Manual email back-and-forth with customers to collect ID and acknowledgments Increased customer service workload during peak sales periods Higher risk of fulfillment errors and returns Lost revenue from delayed or canceled California orders Building a custom workflow in-house to manage notices, acknowledgments, ID collection, review, and audit tracking is time-consuming and difficult to scale, especially with holiday volume and future regulatory changes likely.

How Merchants Are Preparing Many merchants are addressing these requirements by implementing structured verification workflows that:

Present the correct California notice automatically Capture and store buyer acknowledgment per order Collect and review government-issued proof of age Hold orders from fulfillment until all requirements are satisfied Maintain a complete audit trail tied to each transaction Solutions like eCheckpoint Verify were designed specifically to support this type of regulation-driven workflow and can be integrated directly into existing eCommerce systems without disrupting checkout or fulfillment operations .

What Merchants Should Do Now With January 1, 2026 approaching quickly, merchants selling firearms accessories to California should:

Identify which products fall under the expanded accessory definition Ensure their systems can present required notices and collect acknowledgments Confirm they have a compliant proof-of-age collection process Coordinate fulfillment and carrier requirements ahead of time Avoid waiting until peak holiday volume to implement changes Early preparation helps ensure California revenue is not interrupted and allows teams to adapt calmly rather than react under pressure.

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