One Of the Few Voices Or Reason

[Subdeacon Joe]

https://ad67.asmrc.org/press-release/16677

 

SACRAMENTO – Assemblywoman Melissa A. Melendez, R-Lake Elsinore, today held the line, again, against an onslaught of overreaching, partisan gun control legislation pushed by the Democrat majority in the Assembly Public Safety Committee.

“It is clear my Democrat colleagues aim is to strip Californians entirely of their Second Amendment rights,”said Melendez. “The Democrats swore an oath to defend the entire Constitution, not just the parts they like.”

Today, the seven-member Assembly Public Safety Committee, on party-line votes, passed the following Democrat-authored bills:

• SB 1235 (De León): Requires background checks for ammunition purchasers, licenses to sell ammunition, and collection of sale information. Restrictions on ammunition purchases, creates a DOJ database of ammunition owners. Bans internet and out of state ammunition purchase.
• SB 880 (Hall, Glazer): Redefines assault weapons to encompass specified guns capable of accepting any type of detachable magazine. Bans common and constitutionally protected firearms that have magazine locking devices.
• SB 1446 (Hancock): Prohibits the possession of magazines holding more than 10 rounds and confiscation of lawfully acquired, standard capacity magazines that can hold over 10 rounds.
• SB 1407 (De León): Requires a person to get a serial number from DOJ before making or assembling a gun.
• SB 894 (Jackson): Requires the reporting of a lost or stolen gun within 5 days of when a person knows or reasonably should have known of the theft or loss. Victimizes victims by criminalizing the failure to report lost and stolen firearms.

In contrast, Melendez this year introduced a legislative package aimed at reducing gun violence and promoting responsible gun ownership without infringing on the Second Amendment. She proposed the following legislation:

• AB 1869 (Melendez): Increases the penalty for stealing a gun from a misdemeanor to a felony. Will be heard in the Senate Public Safety Committee.
• AB 2478 (Melendez): Increases the penalty for anyone who knowingly buys a gun for a criminal. Killed in Assembly Public Safety Committee.
• AB 2540 (Melendez): Makes all gun safes and trigger locks valued under $1,000 exempt from the State Sales Tax. Killed in Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee.

“Despite all of the gun laws in place in California, murderers still manage to get guns,” said Melendez.“Because, try as one might, it is impossible to legislate evil out of existence.”

[Yellowhouse Sam # 25171]

Good news....you might post this in the saloon as I suspect a lot of folks don't visit here.

[Subdeacon Joe]

Good news....you might post this in the saloon as I suspect a lot of folks don't visit here.

 

 

I thought of that, but it IS political. This is the proper place for it.

 

You point out one of the main problems - gun owners not paying attention to politics.

 

What the heck....

 

Here is a rant I put together about 10 or 12 years ago.

 

 

 

GET OFF YOUR COMPLACENCY AND DO YOUR PART!

In California there are at least 6,000,000 firearms owners, yet we have some of the most draconian and Byzantine firearms laws in the country. Why? Because too many of us are content to sit and complain but are unwilling to take half an hour a week to do anything about it. Most of us would rather stand around at the range or in a gun shop and spend a couple of hours debating the merits of .300 Magnum over the latest .270 super short ultra mag. Can you find five minutes a day to support your civil rights? That is all it takes. If you can’t give that little amount of time, you deserve to have your guns legislated away from you. Imagine if in your assembly district EVERY gun owner called his or her assembly member once a week to complain about restrictive firearms legislation. Say there are only 15,000 gun owners in your district (with 80 districts that comes to 1.2 million, a far cry from all the legal gun owners in the state) and each one makes a call once a week which takes 3 minutes of staff time. It would take 750 man-hours per WEEK just to listen to gun owners complain about restrictive gun laws. That would mean that every member of the Assembly would need almost 19 full time staff members to do nothing but pay attention to our calls. Think they might hear us? After all, politicians are concerned with numbers.

 

There are five calls you need to make each week – to one assembly member, one state senator, one member of the House of Representatives, and two members of the US Senate. That is what it will take, each of us calling once a week to make our views known.

 

Yes, you may belong to the NRA or Gun Owners of America, or the California Rifle and Pistol Association, but so what? Do you think that absolves you from taking personal responsibility for what happens? YOU are responsible for protecting your rights. No one else can do it for you.

 

For those of you in Sonoma and Marin counties too freaking lazy to open a phone book and look up a few numbers, here is a start:

 

I should update it because the number of gun owners in CA ls likely closer to 8,000,000 now.

 

Here is a 2nd one

 

 

 

POLITICALLY ACCURATE, NOT POLITICALLY CORRECT.

For too long firearms owners have let the anti civil rights groups demonize firearms by controlling the terms that are used in the debate about firearms ownership. We continue to help them when we use the terms that they devised to gain emotional control of the minds of our fellow citizens. Please, do not continue to use the pejorative terms that they coined to further their agenda of total abolition of private firearms ownership. Try some of the replacements below:

Not high capacity magazines, but full capacity magazines; not assault rifle, but personal defense tool; not gun rights but civil rights; not gun control but anti civil rights legislation or victim disarmament or even criminal empowerment.

People are not victims of "gun violence" but rather victims of criminal assault.

There are many other terms that need correcting, as you hear them used, correct the person using them.

 

If you are talking with someone who uses the “Well, since ‘militia” is mentioned in the Second, then only members of the militia can own guns” argument, counter with the wording in the First – “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” and ask if the only Constitutionally valid reason for assembly is to petition the Government for redress of grievances.

Point out also the distinction our founding fathers made between rights and powers and the State and the people in the Ninth and Tenth Amendments:

Amendment 9

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

Amendment 10

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

Also be certain to point out that the Government does not empower the people, but rather that the people cede some of their sovereign power to the government.

 

 

I ran off 1000 of each of those, about a year apart. Divided them among 3 local gun shops. Almost all of them ended up being used as scratch paper after a few months.

[Utah Bob #35998]

Good news....you might post this in the saloon as I suspect a lot of folks don't visit here.

It would just get moved back here.