CA AB 256
deadCrimes: intoxication and firearms.
California · 2025-2026 Regular Session · lower
Subscribe in a feed reader. The feed covers recorded actions from the last 30 days; Bill Commons may record an action after it happened at the legislature.
Quick answers
Did CA AB 256 pass?
No. CA AB 256 did not pass — it was defeated or died in the legislative process. Latest recorded action (2026-02-02): From committee: Filed with the Chief Clerk pursuant to Joint Rule 56.
What is CA AB 256 about?
Existing law imposes various sentence enhancements, consisting of additional and consecutive terms of imprisonment, including, among others, enhancements for being armed with a firearm during the commission of a felony. Existing law makes it a crime for a person to be unlawfully under the influence of cocaine, cocaine base, heroin, methamphetamine, or phencyclidine while in the immediate personal possession of a loaded, operable firearm, punishable by imprisonment in the county jail for up to one year or in the state prison for a first conviction, or in the state prison for 2, 3, or 4 years for a 2nd or subsequent conviction. This bill would create an enhancement for any person who, while armed with a firearm in the commission or attempted commission of a felony, is under the influence of a controlled substance they are prohibited from possessing, as specified. The bill would make this enhancement punishable by an additional year of imprisonment in the county jail. The bill would also authorize a search warrant to be issued when a sample of the blood of a person constitutes evidence that tends to show a violation of this enhancement, and the sample will be drawn from the person in a reasonable, medically approved manner. By creating a new enhancement, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
Who sponsors CA AB 256?
DeMaio is the primary sponsor of CA AB 256.
Description
Existing law imposes various sentence enhancements, consisting of additional and consecutive terms of imprisonment, including, among others, enhancements for being armed with a firearm during the commission of a felony. Existing law makes it a crime for a person to be unlawfully under the influence of cocaine, cocaine base, heroin, methamphetamine, or phencyclidine while in the immediate personal possession of a loaded, operable firearm, punishable by imprisonment in the county jail for up to one year or in the state prison for a first conviction, or in the state prison for 2, 3, or 4 years for a 2nd or subsequent conviction. This bill would create an enhancement for any person who, while armed with a firearm in the commission or attempted commission of a felony, is under the influence of a controlled substance they are prohibited from possessing, as specified. The bill would make this enhancement punishable by an additional year of imprisonment in the county jail. The bill would also authorize a search warrant to be issued when a sample of the blood of a person constitutes evidence that tends to show a violation of this enhancement, and the sample will be drawn from the person in a reasonable, medically approved manner. By creating a new enhancement, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
- Introduced
- 2025-01-29
- Latest action
- 2026-02-02 — From committee: Filed with the Chief Clerk pursuant to Joint Rule 56.
- Bill type
- bill
- Last updated
- —
Subjects
Sponsors
- DeMaioauthor
Committees
Not provided by source.
Action timeline
Newest first
2026-02-02
From committee: Filed with the Chief Clerk pursuant to Joint Rule 56.
committee-passage,failure
2026-01-31
Died pursuant to Art. IV, Sec. 10(c) of the Constitution.
failure
2026-01-13
In committee: Set, first hearing. Failed passage.
committee-passage-unfavorable
2026-01-06
Re-referred to Com. on PUB. S.
referral-committee
2026-01-05
Referred to Com. on PUB. S.
referral-committee
2026-01-05
From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on PUB. S. Read second time and amended.
amendment-introduction,amendment-passage,committee-passage,reading-1,reading-2,referral-committee
2025-01-29
Introduced measure version corrected.
introduction
2025-01-17
From printer. May be heard in committee February 16.
2025-01-16
Read first time. To print.
reading-1
Versions
Documents
- application/pdf
- application/pdf
- text/html
- application/pdf(no extracted text yet)
Votes
Do pass and be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations]
2026-01-13 · fail · 2-7
Member-level votes (9)
- Alanis: yes
- Lackey: yes
- Haney: no
- Mark González: no
- Nguyen: no
- Schultz: no
- Ramos: no
- Harabedian: no
- Sharp-Collins: no
Related bills
No related bills recorded for this bill.
Official source
Attribution
Data from openstates_bulk_csv, retrieved 2026-07-24T01:34:27.960412Z
Inspect retained evidence for changes recorded after evidence tracking began:
Session-wide evidence can include changes to other bills:
Use this data
Every field on this page is available from the free public API — no key or licence required. Fetch this bill as JSON: GET /api/v1/bills?jurisdiction=CA&identifier=AB 256. See the API docs or the MCP server for AI assistants.
Known limitations
- Sponsor party and chamber affiliation are not yet captured by this API.
- Committee referrals are not yet captured.
- Some documents have no extracted text yet, so version comparison may be limited.
See the methodology page for data sources and limitations.