Californication

So California passed six (count 'em six) new gun laws today! They are ridiculous. For example, take a look at the picture on the right. In 48 states this is an image of two hunters practicing safe hunting procedure (having your hunting buddy hold your gun while you cross a barrier). In California this is a picture of two people committing a crime (unless they are members of the same family).

Here on the left we see a man who has been (successfully) hunting with America's most popular rifle. In California we see a criminal awaiting arrest and prison. His (already crippled by previous California laws) rifle is now suddenly illegal.

Over here on the right we see a plastic box with a spring inside. In California... you guessed it! In fact people who have owned these for decades are now criminals in the eyes of the law. What have they done differently from yesterday when they were law abiding citizens? Nothing.

Here we see shelves in a sporting goods store (or maybe a Walmart) - oh wait, California? Here we see hundreds of felony counts. 

Let's not kid ourselves - none of these laws have anything to do with public safety.

Yes, you can't lend your gun to a criminal, but that was already illegal - what is new is that you can't lend your gun to your non-criminal hunting buddy or friend.

Yes, you can't own a modern sporting rifle, but criminals don't use them anyway. Terrorists do, but can you imagine a terrorist saying "guess we can't kill them, we might get in trouble for having an illegal weapon." No, this is an attempt to take away all of the popular modern rifles.

Yes, you can't have a standard capacity magazine, but as we saw in numerous mass shootings, that just doesn't matter. Changing a magazine take less than a second if you are trained to do it, whereas this will inconvenience or endanger the law abiding citizen who doesn't spend all his time training for tactical battles but merely wants to engage in a sport.

Finally ammunition background checks. If firearm background checks don't work, then ammunition background checks won't work. And if firearm background checks work, then you don't need ammunition background checks. What this really is, is an attempt to put gun stores out of business. Like the proverbial razor and blades, most stores make their money from sales of ammo and accessories, rather than guns (think about it, you buy a gun once in a lifetime, but you have to buy ammo every time you go to the range). Do you think a law abiding citizen wants to provide paperwork and documentation, be treated like a criminal, and wait up to three days just to buy a box of ammo? No, they will all o to neighboring states, and the California gun stores will lose the sales.

That's not to say all gun laws are bad. Even some California gun laws are good, but these are clearly designed not to increase public safety, but merely to harass law abiding citizens and discourage or prevent people from exercising their constitutional rights.

Posted in: Guns