I believe Ohio Ordnance makes a CA compliant model of their M1918A3 semi-auto BAR. But, it ain't cheap. It's about $4500, which is what's kept me from getting one. I've spent big money on firearms before, but something like a semi-auto BAR would be more of a range toy for me, and I just can't justify that kind of money on a range toy at this stage in my life.
Edit: I recently came across what I think would be one of the funnest guns to have just as a range toy. Is the Freedom Ordnance FM-9. It's a belt-fed 9mm AR upper, similar to the ARES Shrike/Fightlite MCR.
I've got two stripped AR lowers that I need to build up: one for me and one for Little Dude. I'll probably buy a third for Baby Dude eventually, but that's several years down the road. I've got a few gun projects to complete first, but when they're done Little Dude and I are going to build ours together. I'm going to let Little Dude pick out everything for his build so it's exactly how he wants it. He's already off to a good start since he chose a Seekins Precision billet lower for his build.
As for my build, I always intended to build mine as more of a range toy since I'm good on serious "life and liberty" rifles, but I'll build it with quality parts in case something really bad happened and I needed to arm the wife or something. I'll get a decent, simple 5.5.56x45mm upper for it, but I always planned on putting a Fostech Echo trigger in it, and I think that would go nicely with the FM-9 upper. Basically a poor man's submachine gun.
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