By Jim Mosher
The California Legislature’s ongoing war against the Bill of Rights ramped up February 22 as state Assembly members Todd Gloria (D-San Diego) and Tasha Boerner Horvath (D-Encinitas) introduced Assembly Bill 893, a measure that would permanently ban the sale of guns and ammunition at the Del Mar Fairgrounds.
The 22nd District Agricultural Association board faces a lawsuit from the Crossroads of the West gun show because the moratorium the board placed on the show’s operation at the fairgrounds violates the First Amendment rights to free speech and assembly as well as the rights of equal protection and due process.
So, Gloria and Horvath are taking the ban to the legislature for the super majority rubber stamp.
Gloria said he believes it is “wrong for the state of California to profit or benefit from the sales of firearms or ammunition” (Lexy Brodt, Coast News, March 1).
That’s a curious remark from a politician whose party seeks to tax and regulate every resource in California, including water… In fact the state collects tens of millions of dollars annually from background checks and sales taxes on all firearms sold through licensed dealers at brick and mortar stores and gun shows.
The state also rakes in taxes on all ammunition and accessories. All firearm dealers pay fees to maintain a California Firearm Dealer license in addition to a Federal Firearm License.
In almost the same breath Gloria added he also believes “that gun ownership is a constitutional right in the United States.” Yet, since the 1989 Roberti-Roos ban on commonly owned (and constitutionally protected) semiautomatic rifles, pistols and shotguns, the majority Democrats in the legislature have behaved like the Second Amendment doesn’t exist.
They have leveraged every gun related tragedy committed by criminals and madmen to ram through unconstitutional laws that only infringe the civil right of law-abiding Californians to defend themselves and their families.
In the meantime they mass released so-called “low risk” felons to our streets and declared California a sanctuary state for illegal aliens, giving cover for thousands of foreign gang members.
The legislative majority has also prohibited residents with state concealed weapon permits from carrying on school campuses, only creating more defenseless soft targets for persons with evil intent.
Gun prohibitionists proclaim that the purported crisis level of “gun violence” is attributable to widespread lawful gun ownership.
The FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports and other studies actually show a downward trend in gun related homicides as private gun ownership has vastly increased in the past thirty years.
According to the report, 74 per cent of firearm related killings occurred in the commission of felony, 71 percent of gunshot victims had police records and 64 percent had prior convictions.
The data also indicates that violent crime tends to be much lower in jurisdictions that allow citizen concealed carry than those that severely restrict the right to self-defense.
Instead of accelerating their cultural assault on basic American freedoms, Sacramento politicians could help the federal government secure our southern border to stem the flow of cartel drugs and weapons, human trafficking and stop providing sanctuary for illegal alien gangsters.
Mass killers usually commit their 15 minutes of infamy before police can arrive. If the Democrats in the legislature were truly interested in public safety they would recognize the unalienable right of citizen self-defense.
