CA is pretty much the pitts when it comes to owning firearms of any type.
Rifles, pistols, shotguns all require a 10-day waiting period, then there's other restrictions in relation to the mechanical workings of the weapon, primarily 10 rd magazine limits.
Then there's also the registering of ammunition everytime you buy that.

However, like the UK and other areas with restrictive gun laws, crime still runs rampant because crooks aren't scared of laws.

All of that withstanding, I'm looking into purchasing either an xD-9, or Sig P226 for CCW in my area.
With the ex-con transplants and meth-heads that like to barrel down the streets in this area, I'd like to have an equalizer in case they want to pull the usual "1 vs. however-many-are-in-each-vehicle" tactic.
In the meantime, I just try to ride along the streets that nobody cares about, or ones that would give a carload of brigands something to cry about.