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At least some good news from California
LaMalfa Bill to Prevent Firearm Confiscation Signed:
National Rifle Association Praises LaMalfa Bill
SACRAMENTO – Assemblyman Doug LaMalfa’s AB 1645 was signed into law over the weekend by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The legislation prevents state and local government from confiscating firearms from law abiding citizens during emergencies.
During the State of Emergency after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans officials issued confiscation orders for all firearms, including those possessed by law abiding citizens trying to protect themselves and their property. The confiscation left law abiding citizens at the mercy of armed thugs and looters, with little hope of protection by law enforcement. Many residents of New Orleans are still waiting to get their guns back and are currently suing the City of New Orleans over the confiscations.
“The most basic cornerstone of our liberty and safety is the ability and right to own and keep firearms,” said Assemblyman Doug LaMalfa. “What more basic need is there than to protect the safety of your family in a time of emergency? Firearms are the most immediate form of protection for families in an emergency. Law enforcement cannot be everywhere and the ability of individuals to protect themselves and their families from would-be-criminals is vital.”
National Rifle Association Chief Lobbyist Chris Cox said, “In passing this law, Assemblyman LaMalfa and California’s General Assembly acted to protect the rights of law-abiding gun owners when their rights are most vital. During a time when there is no 9-1-1 or police upon which to rely, honest citizens will never again have to worry that their only means of self protection from looters or thugs will be taken away by the government.”
“On behalf of our thousands of NRA members in California, I want to thank Assemblyman Doug LaMalfa for his leadership and commitment to bringing the ‘Emergency Powers’ bill to passage in both chambers of the General Assembly,” concluded Cox. “His support was instrumental in seeing this fundamental protection signed into law.”
Assemblyman Doug LaMalfa is a lifelong farmer representing the Second Assembly District including Shasta, Tehama, Butte, Colusa, Glenn, Modoc, Siskiyou, Sutter and Yolo counties.
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Since Jan. 3 of this year I have been working on the idea of a conference/meeting on this issue to explain the facts to local and county PD people.
I am in Orange County, CA.
Since Vitter-Jindal passed, and this bill has passed, misbehaving law officers confiscating firearms without legal authority now face unlimited personal liability under US Sec. 1983. The concept of sovereign immunity, if it ever applied in such cases, has been revoked.
I have several people on board already, but no schedule, meeting place or funding. So far I have spoken to local and national NRA, my local PD, the county supervisors, the sheriff's department, a few local attorneys and Clayton Cramer.
What next? Does anybody have specific suggestions?
The problem isn't them confiscating guns during an emergency, it's all the excuses they keep coming up with to confiscate them during 'normal times'.
For some reason, I am surprised that the federal Department of Homeland Security hasn't come out in opposition to laws like this.
You've overlooked the obvious: if a representative of the government says you must turn your guns in, and you refuse, you are no longer a law-abiding citizen .......
"CarlS," on October 19, 2007 07:19 PM, wrote:
"You've overlooked the obvious: if a representative of the government says you must turn your guns in, and you refuse, you are no longer a law-abiding citizen ......."
Carl,
You have overlooked the obvious.
If "a representative of the government says you must turn your guns in, and you refuse, you are no longer a law-abiding citizen," then HE IS NO LONGER A LAW-ABIDING CITIZEN.
As Cicero wrote, " . . . [G]entlemen, there exists a law, not written down anywhere but inborn in our hearts; a law which comes to us not by training or custom or reading but by derivation and absorption and adoption from nature itself; a law which has come to us not from theory but from practice, not by instruction but by natural intuition. I refer to the law which lays it down that, if our lives are endangered by plots or violence or armed robbers or enemies, any and every method of protecting ourselves is morally right. When weapons reduce [the laws] to silence, the laws no longer expect one to await their pronouncements. For people who wait for these will have to wait for justice, too--and meanwhile they must suffer injustice first."
I wager that here in CA there is a silent but determined horde of folks who are already living by the law of nature described above--and that is why they are as indifferent to the NRA as the NRA appears to be to them.
With or without Arnold's signing of the La Malfa bill, those folks would not surrender their rights or their firearms without having exercised both fully first.
verbum sapienti satis est.
“The most basic cornerstone of our liberty and safety is the ability and right to own and keep firearms...”
Actually, the right as affirmed in the Constitution (and my state's constitution) doesn't specify only "firearms". It says "arms", so it also applies to clubs, pepper spray, screwdrivers, pointy sticks, halberds or a laser rifles.
I wish the NRA and its cronies would drop this "right to own a gun" rubbish. It hurts the cause to reduce the argument solely to the right to possess some material object. It this looks like a minor in comparison to "public safety". The disarmers only have to make it appear that a gun is non-essential to undermine all of the NRA's arguments. This is very easy to accomplish among the upper-middle class who can afford to hide within gated communities and pay high taxes for top-tier police protection. The status quo supports the position of the disarmers: "Hey, you haven't needed a weapon yet, right? So why should anyone else?" Then when their world is shattered, the disarmers push the NRA and other "gun rights" organizations in front of the train. Look at the aftermath of the VT mass murders. Who got blamed?
It's not just about possession -- you can own a gun in New York City provided you pass the colon exam and keep it under a minimum of 17 gun locks, with all the mandated manual safeties engaged, 500 feet below ground in a bomb-proof bank vault, and after the requisite 3 years for application processing (bribing) -- it's about what you can do with it, i.e. your liberty. That includes hunting, shooting targets, collecting, buying, selling, building, destroying, defending lives, defending property, loading a 5,000 round drum magazine, using it as a tent stake, and carrying it wherever you damn well please. It also includes buying ammo in whatever quantity you choose, making ammo, adding accessories, removing accessories, modifying it, and storing it in the manner of your choosing anywhere on your private property.
If the whole gun-owning community doesn't widen the focus to include the whole argument regarding individual liberty, we'll be holding our Trap-door Springfield replicas in the air at Friends of the NRA dinners in 2030, yelling: "From my cold dead hands!" Meanwhile there's a gun supervision officer outside making sure that no one leaves the building without first disassembling his Springfield replica, engaging all the mandatory internal safety locks, and placing it in a locking case, apart from the legally-mandated limit of five paper-patched black powder .45-70 rounds with Authenticated-Ignition(tm) primer technology. As you walk to your car, the best you can hope for is that some goblin doesn't kill you with an "illegal" laser blaster before he takes your wallet.
Good news but somewhat superfluous at this point.
Here in CA, the number of people who would vigorously oppose any actual confiscation attempts might surprise those who live outside of CA and who think of CA as only a home to fruits, nuts, and flakes.
It would definitely surprise the erstwhile confiscators.
I would wager that no NOLA-style confiscation would succeed here--with or without any piece of paper from that Bloomberg "Republican" up in Sacramento--"Ah-nuld."