Attorney General Bonta Warns Gun Parts Manufacturer to Immediately Stop Selling Misleading Product

DOJ finds manufacturer Sky Tactical Supply wrongly claimed its FIFY rifle attachment allows buyers to evade California’s assault weapon laws

OAKLAND — California Attorney General Rob Bonta today ordered an immediate stop to the marketing, sale, and distribution of a device advertised as a way for gun owners to evade California’s assault weapon laws. The Fixed It For You Fixed Magazine Cage (FIFY) is a metal device that is installed with a five-round magazine into the pistol grip of a rifle, but the magazine is not actually involved in the loading, firing, and unloading of the rifle. FIFY’s manufacturer, Sky Tactical Supply, has been marketing the FIFY with incorrect claims that installing it would exempt a rifle from California’s definition of an assault weapon. Today, the Attorney General sent a cease-and-desist letter to Sky Tactical Supply, warning the company that it is potentially committing criminal offenses by selling the FIFY in California, and is misleading California consumers about their criminal liability if they buy the product. The Attorney General also issued a bulletin to all criminal justice and law enforcement agencies, firearms dealers, firearm manufacturers, and exempt federal firearms licensees in the state, advising them that firearms with a FIFY and five-round magazine are not exempt from California’s assault weapon laws.

“California’s assault weapon ban is a critical tool to prevent death and tragedy, not a technicality to try and get around,” said Attorney General Bonta. “Those who treat our gun laws like a game are playing with the lives of families and children. Not only is Sky Tactical Supply ignoring and sowing confusion about a law that protects Californians, it's also misleading its customers into buying a useless product to line its own pockets. Today’s cease-and-desist letter is a clear warning that Sky Tactical Supply ignores at its peril. The California Department of Justice will hold accountable those who flout our state's commonsense gun laws.”

In California, it is a felony offense to manufacture an assault weapon, or cause one to be manufactured. The mere possession of an unregistered assault weapon in California can be a felony or a misdemeanor offense.

California law defines several types of assault weapons, but two of these types include a “semiautomatic, centerfire rifle that has a fixed magazine with the capacity to accept more than 10 rounds” or a “semiautomatic, centerfire rifle that does not have a fixed magazine” but one or more specified features. Sky Tactical Supply claims that installation of the FIFY and the use of a suggested five-round magazine would render a rifle outside the scope of these definitions because the rifle would have a fixed magazine with fewer than ten rounds. This is false.

The FIFY installed with a suggested five-round magazine would not count as a “fixed magazine,” as defined under California law, because the magazine does not actually feed any ammunition into the action of the rifle. Instead, the magazine’s five rounds of ammunition merely remain in the pistol grip—uninvolved in the loading, firing, and unloading of the rifle—while the magazine well is left open. That well opening can be used to insert a different type of magazine to load, fire, and unload the rifle, including a fixed magazine with more than ten rounds, a detachable magazine, or a large capacity magazine. In other words, the FIFY’s suggested magazine is a dummy ammunition feeding device because it is non-functional for the rifle in which it is installed.  Sky Tactical Supply incorrectly theorized that the classification of a rifle as an assault weapon is tied to the ammunition feeding device of its choosing.

DOJ found statements on Sky Tactical Supply’s website, on Reddit, and on YouTube, which demonstrate that Sky Tactical Supply markets the FIFY and its suggested magazine as a legal workaround to California’s assault weapons laws. By doing so, it could be aiding and abetting the manufacture of illegal assault weapons by purchasers of the FIFY and is likely misleading California consumers as to the legality of installing the product.

In the cease-and-desist letter, Attorney General Bonta directed the company to immediately stop marketing, selling, and distributing the FIFY and warned that the continued sale of the device could be a violation of California’s assault weapon and consumer protection laws.

Attorney General Bonta requested proof of Sky Tactical Supply’s intention to comply with the cease-and-desist letter by demonstrating how it would immediately do the following:

• Stop marketing and selling the FIFY;
• Cancel all pending purchases of the FIFY; and
• Notify anyone who has bought the FIFY and has been delivered the device that installing the device with the suggested five-round magazine on a specified rifle and continuing to possess such a rifle would violate California law.

A copy of the bulletin is available here, and the cease-and-desist letter is here.