FORTHCOMING CALIFORNIA LEGISLATION HARASSES THE INNOCENT AND PROTECTS THE GUILTY

The two bills seriously designed to stop California firearms and ammunition sale are AB 352 and SB 357. Apparently written by someone who has watched too many episodes of CSI, both bills propose to require high-tech identifying marks on bullets supposedly to make it easier for police to solve crimes. AB 352 sets up a cockamamie, laser-etched, micro-stamping system inside the firing pins and chambers of handguns that would mark the ejected shell casings with the make, manufacture, and serial number of the firearm, increasing already ample incentives for bad guys to steal guns that won't be registered, which they usually do anyway. It would also allow killers to collect marked casings at shooting ranges and then scatter them at crime scenes to confuse the police and cause law-abiding citizens to be harassed and questioned by the police. Oh yeah, and it is completely useless on revolvers.

The bill's real purpose is to burden manufacturers by forcing them to retrofit equipment and factories completely for making handguns to be sold only in California. Presumably the anti-gun fanatics know many gun makers won't bother and will just abandon the market here.

The fourth bill, SB 357, will require marking every bullet in California with an identifying number traceable to the purchaser through a complicated, expensive bullet registration system. Anyone who keeps his old ammo or casts his own bullets would be subject to expensive fines. People (including one of my own staff members!) would have to dispose of hundreds or thousands of dollars worth of unmarked ammo to comply with the new law. With 8 billion rounds of ammunition manufactured world-wide per year, and some factories turning out a million rounds a day, how can they verify that 50 rounds in a single box have the exact same serial numbers? And how do they keep them from being switched later? The industry suggests they'd have to spend hundreds of millions of dollars building special factories, just to sell handgun ammunition in California. Furthermore, while stealing ammunition (as discussed in AB 996) hasn't been a problem before, if this bill passes it will create an immediate, hot, new black market for out-of-state and stolen ammunition. Is that really what they want?

No, it isn't. Of course, what they want is to make gun ownership for recreational and personal protection purposes impossible in California by continuing to drive manufacturers and retailers from the state. Meanwhile, although the gun bills have passed in their houses of origin, bills to extend parole periods and require GPS tracking of sex offenders (SB 1044), prevent felons from owning sex offender group homes (SB 1046), keep sex offender group homes away from schools (SB 1051), and create a one-strike punishment for certain sex crimes against children (SB 448), all have been defeated or stalled in Sacramento by the Democrat majority. Those bills protect innocent people rather than harassing and making them more vulnerable and who expects these Democrats to support that?

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Shotgun for car thief: "A northeast Houston homeowner shot a suspected thief who he caught trying to steal his pickup truck Wednesday morning, police told Local 2. The shooting happened outside the man's home on Richland at Sultan at about 4:15 a.m. shortly after four men arrived in a stolen Cutlass Ciera. Police said the homeowner heard something going on outside, grabbed his shotgun and went outside to investigate. Investigators said the homeowner fired the gun after one of the suspected thieves fired a gun at him first. One of the suspects was struck in the back. He was transported to Ben Taub Hospital and is expected to survive. The three other suspects fled the scene. A nearby resident told Local 2 that the area has repeatedly experienced problems with car theft and vandalism. "They are kicking in the brake lights, stealing the CD players out of our vehicles. The cops ain't done nothing about it so far," neighbor Kenneth Mallard said. The Harris County District Attorney's Office will decide if the homeowner will face charges in the shooting."



Gun owners should worry about property rights ruling: "The recent 5-4 ruling by the Supreme Court legislating away property rights in the United States should give pause to all gun owners, as well as all Americans. In one afternoon, the Supreme Court has done away with private property in the U.S. Do gun owners think they will remain immune from such tyrants? Already, at various times, six of the nine justices have said that U.S. law should conform to foreign law -- especially European law and UN treaties. How long until our gun laws are made to conform to say, England's, where they have an almost total gun ban? If the U.S. Constitution is no longer a protection against government, disarmament and tyranny are simply details to be worked out."