Attorney General Bonta Warns Orange County-Based Gun Manufacturer to Immediately Cease Selling and Distributing Unlawful Assault Weapons

OAKLAND – California Attorney General Rob Bonta today took action to stop Orange County-based firearm manufacturer Juggernaut Tactical (Juggernaut) from selling assault weapons to consumers and distributing them to firearms dealers in the state. The Attorney General sent a cease-and-desist letter to Juggernaut warning the company that its “Featureless Series” of rifles qualify as assault weapons, and are therefore unlawful to possess, manufacture, distribute, transport, import, keep for sale, offer for sale, or display for sale under California law. Following the cease-and-desist letter, Attorney General Bonta 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 the weapons are illegal and should not be sold in the state.

“Our assault weapons ban is a landmark piece of legislation that has saved the lives of countless Californians — firearms manufacturers can’t ignore the law simply because it suits their bottom line,” said Attorney General Bonta. “In California, our firearm regulations were written with the safety of the public and the rights of responsible gun owners in mind. Rather than abide by the law, Juggernaut chose to disregard it by manufacturing and selling a series of illegal assault weapons. Today’s cease-and-desist letter is a warning that we hope is heeded so that no further action becomes necessary.”

California’s more than three-decade-old regulation banning assault weapons became law with the passage of the Roberti-Roos Assault Weapons Control Act of 1989. The Act classified specific brands and models of semiautomatic firearms as assault weapons and banned the ownership and transfer of those firearms. In 2000, an amendment to the law took effect, adding a flexible, features-based definition of assault weapons to prevent firearm manufacturers from producing functionally identical firearms to the ones that are prohibited.

Juggernaut is currently selling on its website a series of rifles that the company designed with the intention of skirting California’s definition of an assault weapon. It claims on its website that the weapons are lawful based on its own incorrect reading of the law. However, the California Department of Justice’s Bureau of Firearms concluded that the manufacturer’s F-9, F-10, and F-15 rifles are all in fact assault weapons under California Penal Code section 30515, subdivision (a)(1)(A). 

In the cease-and-desist letter to Juggernaut, Attorney General Bonta directed the company to immediately stop selling the assault weapons and warned that the continued sale of the firearms could be a felony punishable by up to eight years in prison.

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

• Stop offering for sale on its website the F-9, F-10, and F-15 rifles;
• Cancel all pending purchases of the F-9, F-10, and F-15 rifles from its website;
• Notify anyone who has completed an online purchase of an F-9, F-10, or F-15 rifle and has been delivered the rifle that they are in violation of California law; and
• Retrieve and recover all F-9, F-10, and F-15 rifles already delivered to any California firearms dealer or any other entity that would sell the rifles in California. 

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