can you carry clips elsewhere on your person in California, I assume? Maybe a domb question, but I don’t assume anything is true in California.
So, as soon as you need to defend yourself, and you load the clip, you are illegal?
“can you carry clips elsewhere on your person...”
While clips are not unique to the broomhandled Mauser and the M1 Garand, most semi auto and bolt action firearms (particularly in the last 50 years) use magazines to store and present ammunition for feeding.
Clip - a device that holds ammunition prior to insertion/loading into a magazine.
Magazine - a device that holds AND presents ammunition into a position ready for feeding into a chamber prior to firing. Typically contains a spring that puts upward pressure on the ammunition column to enable positioning and feeding.
Kalifornia is quite thourough when it comes to infringing the right to keep and bear arms. There are actually two separate laws to disarm the people. One is a law which forbids carrying concealed without a permit (which will not be granted in most counties) and the other is a law which forbids the carrying of a loaded gun.
The law concerning a loaded gun has an exception, if I recall correctly, for having the gun loaded at a time when the use of the gun would be justified. For example, if one were carrying openly and unloaded, and an armed attacker appears, it would then be legal to load the gun for purposes of justified self-defense.