The @NRA turns its back on California’s hapless 2nd Amendment advocates

The National Rifle Assn. has pretty much thrown up its hands and turned its back on California.

They have poured $4 million into fighting a Nevada initiative that would require background checks for firearms buyers but just $145,000 into battling a gun control measure in California.

The NRA isn’t stupid, they know a bunch of losers when the see them.

The NRA’s comparatively small investment in California has left the campaign against Proposition 63 at a major disadvantage.

True, but he hapless 2nd Amendment advocates in California have left the national organization with little or no choice. Spend millions and lose, or spend nothing and lose.

Perhaps the NRA has not jumped into the Proposition 63 fight in a bigger way because of polls showing its support, including a recent USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll that found the initiative favored by 64% of registered voters.

Source: NRA not putting up much of a fight against California gun control ballot measure – LA Times

The @FBI says murders surged in 2015, validating @realDonaldTrump

All the gun control money can buy, and the U.S. has become a nation of death.

The country’s murder rate jumped more last year than it had in nearly half a century, newly released federal crime data showed.

The data, part of an annual report released on Monday by the F.B.I., showed that the murder rate rose 10.8 percent across the United States in 2015, part of a nearly 4 percent increase in violent crime.

Fueling the surge in murders was street violence in a handful of major cities, notably Baltimore, Chicago, St. Louis, Washington, D.C., and Milwaukee, where most of the victims were young African-American males.

The F.B.I. reported that guns were used in nearly three-quarters of the nation’s 15,696 murders during 2015. So how’s that gun control thing working for you now?

More at: U.S. Murders Surged in 2015, F.B.I. Finds – The New York Times

2nd Amendment advocates fail again as Jerry Brown signs AB 857

You can’t find a worse lobbying effort anywhere in America.

Governor Brown on Friday announced that he had signed without comment Assembly Bill 857, requiring anyone who manufactures or assembles a homemade firearm to first apply for a unique serial number or other marking from the state Department of Justice, which must then be affixed to the weapon. The measure, by Assemblyman Jim Cooper, D-Elk Grove, would also prohibit the sale or transfer of any self-assembled firearms.

Gun owners in California should be furious at their so called “advocates” in Sacramento. Enjoy your Police State.

In 2014, Brown vetoed a similar bill by Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León.

The lame opponents of AB 857, led by the National Rifle Association and other gun-rights organizations, argued that the bill would infringe on a constitutionally protected right to assemble one’s own firearms by requiring government permission and would cost California hundreds of thousands of dollars each year to enforce.

Nice try. They couldn’t have come up with a weaker argument. Clearly it had no impact on the Legislature, or the Governor.

In a statement, the Firearms Policy Coalition slammed Brown and warned that the law could be the spark to ignite a revolution against the state government.

“Today’s action by Governor Brown shows how craven California’s despotic ruling class has become,” President Brandon Combs said. “The Legislature has abandoned the Constitution, representative government, and the People of California. I fully expect the People to respond in kind.”

Respond how? By electing even more gun control supporters to the Legislature, and by voting Gavin Newsom into the Governor’s office?

Combs thinks insulting the Governor is a good idea. What a moron.

Source: The Sacramento Bee

Dianne Feinstein’s Latest Gun Bill – Another #EpicFail

Clearly Dianne Feinstein doesn’t have a clue.

Just eight days after Omar Mateen turned his newly purchased guns on patrons in an Orlando nightclub, Senate Republicans defeated legislation by Sen. Dianne Feinstein that would have prevented him from legally buying the weapons had the law been in place.

Three other gun measures also went down to defeat.

The bill by Feinstein, D-Calif., would have banned Mateen and all others who had been on government watch lists as known or suspected terrorists from legally obtaining firearms.

Mateen had twice been on watch lists before purchasing a semiautomatic rifle and semiautomatic pistol from a Florida store about a week before the rampage at the gay Pulse nightclub that killed 49 people and wounded 53 others.

Only two Republicans, Mark Kirk of Illinois and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, broke party lines to support the bill. One Democrat, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, voted no.

The legislation was defeated 45-53.

In the end, Dianne Feinstein has done nothing to move the debate. She’s old, lazy, and out of touch with what’s going on in America. It’s time for her to go away.

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

Some Gun Control Myths Debunked

Source: NBC News

New California laws: Enjoy your #PoliceState

After grabbing more guns, a couple of Cali senators share a good laugh.

Those who, by word and deed, are out of sync with California’s deeply blue political ethos risk social ostracism.Increasingly, however, the state’s dominant politicians want to subject dissenters to discrimination and legal harassment – even infringement of constitutional rights.

Smoke a cigarette, own a gun, cut a tree, pan for gold, question the “inconvenient truth” of human-caused global warming, utter an impolite joke or even drive a gasoline-powered car and you may run afoul of an ever-tightening web of laws and rules that punish your heresy – promulgated by political figures who talk constantly about their respect for civil rights.

Source: The Sacramento Bee

Gun owners in California should be looking for some better lobbyists in Sacramento

The state Senate on Thursday approved sweeping new restrictions on using guns in California in response to the December mass shooting by two terrorists that left 14 dead in San Bernardino.

Lawmakers approved 11 bills including measures mandating background checks for Californians buying ammunition and outlawing the manufacture and sale of semiautomatic rifles with detachable magazines.

The bills, which next go to the Assembly for consideration, represent the most ambitious effort at gun control in decades in California, which already has some of the strictest gun laws in the nation.

Gun bills have traditionally had a harder time in the Assembly, but Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon said this week he is committed to pushing them through.

Apparently gun rights advocates in Sacramento can figure out to convince legislators that California citizens should not be held responsible for the acts of violence committed by terrorists.

Maybe gun owners in California should be looking for some better lobbyists in Sacramento? And definitely a better message.

Source: LA Times

Cali gun-rights groups wring their hands as @GavinNewsom’s gun-grabbing initiative makes the ballot

Gavin Newsom continues to steamroll gun-rights organizations.

Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, the architect of an omnibus gun-control initiative to require background checks for ammunition, said Thursday that the campaign has collected enough signatures to qualify for the fall ballot.

Newsom said he plans to submit roughly 600,000 signatures for his “Safety for All,” initiative on Friday, far more than the required 365,000.

Gun-rights groups have pledged a spirited opposition campaign. But so far, they’ve done nothing to stop Newsom’s efforts. One wonders what they do with all that money they rake in from unwitting gun-owners???

Source: The Sacramento Bee

Gun control in Oakland: “it’s not the law abider I’m worried about”

I live in Oakland, so I support the development and passage of effective gun control measures at all levels of government. That said, the ban on high-capacity magazines isn’t one of them.

The City Council unanimously approved the ban on magazines holding more than 10 bullets this month, following in the footsteps of Los Angeles, Sunnyvale and San Francisco. The idea is that if there are fewer of these bullet-feeding devices, the public will be safer.

The problem is it relies on law-abiding citizens to comply by surrendering any high-capacity magazines to police or getting rid of them some other way. But, it’s not the law abider I’m worried about.

The reality is that it appears these laws have had no effect in Sunnyvale and San Francisco, which have had their bans since 2013.

No one in either of these cities has ever — not once — turned in a high-capacity magazine to police.

Source: One gun control attempt that misfires – San Francisco Chronicle

Cali Dems continue to grind away at hapless gun owners

Cali Dems  absolutely plan on prying your cold dead fingers from the trigger…

Assemblyman David Chiu, seeking to strengthen the state’s ban on assault weapons, brought two semiautomatic rifles to San Francisco to show how quick and easy it is to load a clip full of bullets — legally and illegally.

It took him about two seconds to change clips on an illegal assault rifle. And it took him about three seconds — using the “bullet button” loophole in existing law — to change the clips on a legal semiautomatic rifle, the kind available for sale throughout California.

The demonstration in a conference room in the State Building was the opening salvo in the campaign by Chiu, D-San Francisco, to ban detachable clips from semiautomatic rifles sold in California. His bill, introduced Thursday, would require the magazines on such weapons to be permanently attached.

Source: Lawmakers seek to strengthen state’s assault-weapons ban – San Francisco Chronicle

Cali Dems set to grab more guns – Cali Reps have no plan to stop them

As President Obama looks to tighten federal gun laws, Democratic lawmakers in California are pushing their own proposals.

Democratic Assemblyman Mike Gatto, who represents Glendale, wants people on the government’s no-fly list to also be banned from buying guns in California.

“We could do things a lot better to make sure that the mentally ill do not have guns in their households and frankly making sure that the dangerous don’t have guns in their households,” says Gatto. “There’s an awful lot of people who fit both categories who still have firearms in their households.”

Assemblyman Miguel Santiago, a Los Angeles Democrat, plans to introduce a bill to limit monthly rifle and shotgun purchases to one per month, similar to California’s existing law limiting handguns.

Another proposal from Assemblyman Phil Ting, a San Francisco Democrat, would broaden who can seek temporary firearm restraining orders to include co-workers.

Senate leader Kevin de León says he wants background checks on ammunition sales and he will look to pass a package of new gun control measures through the Legislature in “coming weeks.”

And what’s the California GOP doing about it….? Well they’re wringing their hands and shedding lots of alligator tears. That’s about it.

Source: California Lawmakers Prep Gun Control Bills – capradio.org

@GavinNewsom plans to grab your gun on his way to the Governor’s Mansion

Newsom makes his move for your gun.

Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposed gun-control initiative is coming to a shopping center near you.

On Thursday, Newsom was cleared to begin gathering the nearly 366,000 signatures needed to place the measure on the November ballot. It would require most people to pass background checks to purchase ammunition, the sales of which would be made through licensed vendors and reported to the Justice Department.

Newsom’s bid also bans possession of large-capacity ammunition magazines and prohibits those convicted of stealing a firearm from possessing them.

Source: Gavin Newsom’s gun-control measure hits streets for signatures, collects cash – The Sacramento Bee

Newsom’s pandering to the prejudices of Dem activists he needs for his gubernatorial bid

California has no shortage of real issues – water supply, poverty, highway congestion, tax reform and educational deficiencies, to name but a few.Those who aspire to the governorship should tell us what they’d do about real problems, not merely peddle symbolic fluff.

Source: Dan Walters: Gun control effort shows Newsom’s derivative symbolism – The Sacramento Bee

Gavin Newsom proposes gun control initiative for 2016 ballot

California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom is proposing a 2016 ballot initiative that would ask voters to strengthen the state’s gun laws by restricting ammunition sales, requiring owners to turn in assault-style magazines that have a large capacity and requiring gun owners to report lost or stolen guns to law enforcement.

Source: Top California official to propose gun control initiative

You’re a kook with a gun…and California really doesn’t care

A program to determine whether potentially dangerous people own guns in violation of state law is plagued with delays that pose a “continued risk to public safety,” California’s auditor reported Thursday.

Auditor Elaine M. Howle said the Department of Justice, overseen by Atty. Gen. Kamala D. Harris, failed over 18 months to fully implement seven of eight recommendations auditors made in 2013 to reduce backlogs.

via California lags in checking whether dangerous people own guns – LA Times.

California gun ownership rates below national average

California may be the home of the Western movie, but it’s not one of the top states for gun ownership.

Rural states with low population density have the highest gun ownership rates, according to a paper published in the medical journal Injury Prevention. The study also linked a strong gun culture with ownership, but couldn’t say which came first (a “chicken or the egg” situation as one says). A significant portion of gun owners were over the age of 55.

via California gun ownership rates below national average – San Francisco Chronicle.

Nope, no new gun laws coming from Washington

No new laws restricting access to guns will be passed as a result of Wednesday’s racist shooting rampage, which left nine dead at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. Americans can be confident this is true for several reasons.

via Why gun control is doomed – The Economist.

President Obama waves the white flag on gun control

There were two emotions evident in President Obama’s statement Thursday about the murders of nine people at a church in Charleston, S.C., the night before.

The first was anger — at the fact that he was, once again, addressing the country in the wake of a mass shooting. The second was more along the lines of resignation — a head-shaking weariness about the almost-certain fact that this latest shooting would do little to move the needle on gun control legislation.

via President Obama waves the white flag on gun control – The Washington Post.

Guns for Everybody!!! More Californians could get concealed weapon permits if the 9th Circuit says OK

A special 11-judge federal appeals court panel will consider whether to side with the gun lobby’s effort to dramatically loosen California’s restrictions on carrying concealed firearms.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday will hear a case that involves challenges to regulations in San Diego and Yolo Counties but that has implications for local gun control efforts across the state.

The 9th Circuit case is reconsidering a ruling that found San Diego’s strict but common guidelines of showing “good cause” for issuing concealed-carry gun permits are too restrictive.

In that ruling last year, a divided three-judge panel found San Diego’s restrictions trampled on the Second Amendment rights of private citizens to carry a gun for self-defense.

If the ruling stands, concealed weapon permit applicants will still have to pass background checks and undergo training.

via Many more Californians could get concealed weapon permits.