Oh, but it is. You don't bother to check the populace for compliance. It's just that -- bingo! -- when you pick somebody for something else, here's another nice, juicy felony you can stick him with.
Like so much unreasonable legislation, many of us have too much at stake to break it, but criminals do not. It's another "disarming good citizens" measure.
Ding Ding Ding!!! Here's a cigar for ya, Prion...don't smoke it in California, though.