Mulford Act

The Mulford Act is a 1967 California statute which prohibits public carrying of loaded firearms without a permit. Named after Republican assemblyman Don Mulford and signed into law by governor of California Ronald Reagan, the law was initially crafted with the goal of disarming members of the Black Panther Party, which was conducting armed patrols of Oakland neighborhoods in what would later be termed copwatching. They garnered national attention after Black Panthers members, bearing arms, marched upon the California State Capitol to protest the bill.

Assembly Bill 1591 was introduced by Don Mulford (R) from Oakland on April 5, 1967, and subsequently co-sponsored by John T. Knox (D) from Richmond, Walter J. Karabian (D) from Monterey Park, Frank Murphy Jr. (R) from Santa Cruz, Alan Sieroty (D) from Los Angeles, and William M. Ketchum (R) from Bakersfield. A.B 1591 was made an "urgency statute" under Article IV, §8(d) of the Constitution of California after "an organized band of men armed with loaded firearms [...] entered the Capitol" on May 2, 1967; as such, it required a two-thirds majority in each house. On June 8, after the third reading in the Assembly (controlled by Democrats, 42:38), the urgency clause was adopted, and the bill was then passed 70 to 5. It passed the Senate (split, 20:19) on July 26, 29 votes to 7, and was passed back to the assembly on July 27, 1967 for a final vote, where it passed 62 to 9. The bill was signed by Governor Ronald Reagan on July 28, 1967.

Both Republicans and Democrats in California supported increased gun control, as did the National Rifle Association of America. Governor Ronald Reagan, who was coincidentally present on the Capitol lawn when the protesters arrived, later commented that he saw "no reason why on the street today a citizen should be carrying loaded weapons" and that guns were a "ridiculous way to solve problems that have to be solved among people of good will." In a later press conference, Reagan added that the Mulford Act "would work no hardship on the honest citizen."

The bill was signed by Reagan and became California penal code nr.25850 and nr.171c.

California State Assembly

Composition

Final Vote

Members and Voting Record

California State Senate

Composition

Composition is at the time of voting. McAteer (D) died in office in May 1967.

Final Vote

Members and Voting Record

Litigation

On January 3, 2026, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit struck down the state's ban on open carrying of firearms, citing the Second Amendment and the New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass'n v. Bruen decision.

See also

• Black Panther Party

References

Further reading

• Deitle, Cynthia (1999). "California's Attempts to Disarm the Black Panthers". San Diego Law Review. 36 (4). CORE output ID 346457515.
• Hemmens, Craig (July 2000). "Resisting Unlawful Arrest in Mississippi: Resisting the Modern Trend". California Criminal Law Review. 2 (1). SSRN 235760.
• Hampton, Henry; Fayer, Steve (2011). "Birth of the Black Panthers, 1966–1967". Voices of Freedom: An Oral History of the Civil Rights Movement from the 1950s Through the 1980s. Random House. pp. 349–72. ISBN 978-0-307-57418-3.
• Sanders, Kindaka (2015). "A Reason to Resist: The Use of Deadly Force in Aiding Victims of Unlawful Police Aggression". San Diego Law Review. 52 (3): 695–750.