The Fall of California

My family has been on the front lines battling the dangerous hoax called “gun control” for half a century. In that time, we’ve seen just about everything – repeatedly. The single most important thing we’ve learned over those 50 years is that gun control zealots are never satisfied. They keep coming back again and again, demanding ever more restrictions to pile on top of the current restrictions that have failed to deliver the promised reductions in crime and saving of lives their proponents promised. The ultimate objective of all gun control laws, no matter how minor, innocuous, or reasonable they may seem, is to make private gun ownership obsolete.

No gun control law has ever resulted in reductions in violent crime. The research on this is very clear. There is not a single example of a jurisdiction enacting gun control laws and crime going down as a result – not even Australia’s mass confiscation. And yet this is what is promised each time a new gun control law is proposed. But when gun control laws fail to deliver on their promises, their advocates don’t give up. Instead, like a gambler on a losing streak, they double down. They blame “loopholes” and the “evil gun lobby” and call for new laws to “close the loopholes,” tighten restriction and “save lives.” This time, they assure us, it will really work – until it doesn’t, and they’re back with more restrictions, more “loopholes” to close and more promises.

That is why we fight so vigorously against every single gun control law they propose. We know that the law won’t reduce crime, but will complicate the lives of gun owners and jeopardize the lives of innocents. And we know that each little step is going to be followed by a next step and a next step. For those who might doubt this, I offer you the example of California.

California was a typical Western state with typically few gun laws and a typically vibrant “gun culture,” but since the 1960s California has, step-by-step, adopted some of the most restrictive firearm laws in the country. These laws have failed miserably at reducing crime, but that has just served as fuel for anti-rights politicians. What the laws have been effective at is harassing gun owners and making gun ownership more difficult in the state, resulting in a much lower rate of gun ownership than other Western states and most of the country.

Compare California, the nation’s most populous state, with the second-most populous state, Texas. It is estimated that about 36 percent of Texans own guns, compared to about 21 percent of Californians. Both states have murder rates of about five murders per 100,000 people, but in spite of much more stringent gun laws and 15 percent lower rate of gun ownership, a slightly greater percentage of murders in California are committed with guns.

The fact is that violent crime, including “gun crime,” has gone down dramatically over the past 20 years, while gun ownership has been going up nationwide – but crime hasn’t been going down faster in California or other gun control utopias. In fact the opposite is true, but the “solution” offered by California politicians is to keep betting on failed policies and pass even more laws infringing on the rights of responsible gun owners.

On top of what are arguably the most restrictive gun control laws in the nation, the California Legislature has now passed a raft of new gun control laws that go so far as to criminalize the possession of property Californians currently legally own. California politicians several years ago declared illegal the manufacture, importation and sale of magazines able to hold more than 10 rounds. They told people they could keep the ones they already owned, but now they have declared these magazines to be contraband and given California gun owners one year to dispose of them or face criminal penalties and fines. Of course, terrorists and suicidal mass murderers would never think to drive over to a neighboring state where these magazines are legal and plentiful, or just print a few up on their 3D printer.

The legislature has also redefined “assault weapons,” further limiting what Californians can buy, sell, or own, and forcing thousands of legal gun owners to either modify their guns, take them out of state, or register them for future confiscation.

On top of that they’ve decided to require full background checks for ammunition purchases, maintaining records of those purchases, thereby creating a de facto registry of gun owners in the state. This will drive up ammunition prices and quickly overwhelm the background check system, causing delays and resulting in the expansion of the system at gun owner expense. It will also result in otherwise law-abiding gun owners becoming criminals as they smuggle cheap ammo in from Arizona and Nevada.

And as bad as these laws are, an initiative being pushed by Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom is even worse, taking these laws a step further and including provisions even Gov. Jerry “Moonbeam” Brown vetoed.

The situation in California is bad, but it serves as an object lesson to the rest of the country. Gun control is a scam. It’s a lie, and those who tell the lie are never satiated. If you don’t stop them, they will keep coming back, and back again, just as they have in California, for another slice of your rights until there’s nothing left.

If you live in California, do your part to stop the madness. Oust the anti-rights zealots and defeat Newsom’s “safety” initiative. If you don’t live in California, don’t let this happen to you. Say “No” to gun control snake oil and the politicians who pedal it. Get busy, get involved, and vote your rights.

©2016 The Firearms Coalition, all rights reserved. Reprinting, posting, and distributing permitted with inclusion of this copyright statement. www.FirearmsCoalition.org.