Checked with a LEO friend of mine in SoCal. “Off-list” weapons purchased by an officer after the law establishing the approved list went into effect cannot be sold on to a private citizen in the state. The officer can either sell it to a dealer, give/sell it to his department, sell it to another officer or sell it out of state with the usual Fed restrictions but no additional CA ones.
If he sold an offlist weapon to a non-officer, he clearly broke the law.
Might be so.
The article I linked says it was different in 2014.
I have had many officers tell me things about the law that turned out to be completely wrong.
California firearms law is very complex.
Fixed it for you.