Tag Archives: gun politics

When things are so bad that you have to send it to the people

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So in California, which has had an assault weapon ban going all the way back to 1989 and yet still have mass-shootings with California-compliant firearms, lawmakers tried to pass over 20 legislative actions on increased gun control this session.

A baker’s dozen of these made it through the legislature in Dem-heavy votes of which Gov. Jerry Brown signed 7 into law and returned five with vetoes.

Since gun rights groups and Republican lawmakers couldn’t derail these, a group of gun owners on a gun forum (Calguns) got together and decided, “Let’s try for a ballot referendum to repeal these…”

And that’s exactly what they are doing.

With a pressing deadline of Sept.29, they are trying to get 450,000 signatures on 7 different propositions. Of course, California has 13 million gun owners, which by definition should all be capable of registering to vote, so it’s not far-fetched.

I’ve spoken with the man behind the effort, a San Diego tech company executive, and it’s a hail Mary play with a lot of spunk behind it.

More over in my column at Guns.com here and here.

The Next Assault Weapons Ban

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Firearms legislation is a funny think in the United States. In 1775, the 10th Regiment of Foot of King George took a march in the countryside on a mission to seize privately held arms and munitions. These red coats, as they were called, were held up at a little village of Lexington by local militia members and the rest is history. Since the 2nd amendment was added to the US Constitution, there have been several public laws and acts that have come and gone to limit it. Some of these, like the black codes of the 1860s, the ten years long Clinton-era Assault Weapons Ban (AWB), and the 1994 Brady Bill has largely been overturned. Others, like the National Firearms/Gun Control Acts of 1934, 1938, and 1968 along with the establishment of the ATF (now the BATFE) in 1972 remain.

Read the rest at my column at Firearms Talk http://www.firearmstalk.com/entries/The-Next-Assault-Weapons-Ban.html