Soooo, just being smaller than .50 isn't good enough?
It can't look "mean?"
That's right. California has its very own special "assault weapons" ban which really limits availability of semi-auto rifles. If it is semi-auto center fire, then you can only have one "evil" feature - such as a detachable magazine. You can't have a semi-auto rifle with both a detachable magazine AND a pistol grip. Those darn things are so dang dangerous that they'll let themselves out of the safe, load themselves, and hop up and down the streets spraying bullets at kindergarten children.