Every day I wake up, and I have a goal. A goal that I can learn from yesterday and apply it to the present. After all, if one can not learn from their mistakes, they’re bound to repeat them. Well, that’s just what our appropriations committee and our senate here in California did. They went through and rubber stamped a bill that’s so absurd that everyone needs to be aware of it.
Ok, so California is a Liberal state (just a little, right?), and we have some terrible gun laws already on the books to “save the children”. However, do we need another fiscally negative bill to be passed given this economy and our current status as being BANKRUPT? Yeah, that’s right. AB962 is fiscally negative. It’s going to take money from other funds to support itself. It’s also going to limit the amount of sales tax the state takes in from Internet and mail orders. It will also have the effect of causing sport and recreation shooters to go to the range even less, because ammunition will be harder to get, more expensive, and tiresome to purchase.
So, what are the details you’re asking? If you want to read the proposed laws you can do so here. However I’ll give you a rundown.
First, all purchases of ammunition would be illegal to felons. Gee, it’s already against the law for felons to possess ammunition. Guess we need a double law on this one so they’ll think twice about doing it.
Second, all orders would need to be face-to-face. Which doesn’t sounds bad at first, however many dealers outside of CA are already not selling guns, parts, accessories to CA because of the restrictive laws. This would just add to it making them not sell ammunition either. Let’s also not forget that felons and gang members aren’t law abiding, so what do they care?
Third, it would require licensed “ammunition dealers” (yes, yet another restriction), to finger print and ID the purchaser. Now, you already have to show ID if you look under age, just like tobacco and alcohol. However now they’ll have a file on what you buy, how often, and in what quantities. So if you purchase some ammo, and some banger shoots up the town, you may be a suspect if your purchase matches what was used. Remember, innocent until proven guilty, right?
Fourth, there was limits on quantities that were able to be transfered if you weren’t a dealer. However those were struck down for being obscenely ridiculous.
Fifth, there is not money to enforce this. The state is broke… Why are we trying to pass laws that will cause the state to spend more money at a time like this? Violent crime is at an all time low across the country, yet we’re still looking to pass laws like this for no apparent reason.
Sixth, criminals don’t follow the law. If they did we wouldn’t have a drug problem. What do they care if we add another law? All we’re doing is disarming law abiding citizens. We have rights, and we need to stand up for them. If we lay down our guns, who’s going to stop the lawmakers from handing us muzzles and forcing us to wear them? We can’t let them win, we need to be in control of lawmakers, not the other way around. They work for us!
This isn’t about Republicans or Democrats. In fact you won’t see me siding with anyone on this blog. We need to enforce our constitution and hold everyone accountable. Elected officials work for us. They should fear us, not us fear them. We’re going backwards with our country and state. If our founding fathers could see us now they’d know they failed, which brings tears to my eyes.
If you would like to read more on this, you can read an analogy by other senators here.