Hello readers,
This post assumes you are here in California, you are a gun owner, and you are not moving out of the State anytime soon. Lots of assumptions, I know. But at least I am framing this for a particular audience. If you aren't in the "intended reader" group as described above, you probably won't like this thread, and you perhaps should read something else and just ignore the rest of this.
With that out of the way:
Some of you who have been here a while and who spent time last year in the Firearm Politics & Second Amendment Issues forum may remember this thread which I wrote in hopes of getting information out about recent California laws, and in hopes of getting them challenged.
My endless letter writing to the Governor might have managed to help get some bills vetoed, but I've also received indications from the Governor's office that they are not even reading certain of our letters. One member of the Governor's office, a Special Assistant to the Governor, even admitted as much in an e-mail she sent me.
I had sent a copy of my correspondence with this Governor's Special Assistant and the laws that I wanted to be challenged in court to Michel and Associates, P.C., which I'd been in communication with since last year. However, Michel and Associates in late January, sent me a letter more or less indicating that they had declined to take up the matter, and suggested I look for some other lawyer who might be willing to help.
So, having searched high and low and having heard from lots of people who want to challenge California (but not having found a lawyer that will), I'm pretty much fed up with this process. I'm fairly certain that widespread civil disobedience (general refusal to obey California's unconstitutional laws) and lawsuits against California (at such time when we are prosecuted) are going to be the methods of overturning these laws. That said, I had been hoping to actually challenge the (now signed) laws passed last year before they had a chance to be used. Apparently this is not going to be possible, mostly due to that the lawyer community (so far as I have explored it) generally lacks a spine.
However, for those of you still reading this, there are some things you can do in the legal realm even without a lawyer.
Across the State of California, there are 38 million people. Approximately 10 million of us are gun owners - possibly more, but 10 million is the current best estimate (we were about 9,880,000 in Oct. of 2013, and growing at a rate of over one and a half percent per year, so do the math). That's a lowball "best guesstimate" due to that it does not count those of us who have done up 80 percenters and don't serialize them, nor does it count anything that can't be counted for whatever reason. We in California are second only to Texas in terms of sheer gun ownership, by the numbers, comparing the states.
If only one percent of us would launch our own lawsuit against the State of California, it would overwhelm the State.
After all, one percent of 10 million gun owners in California, is 100,000 people.
As you may or may not know, California Civil Code 52.1(b) states that:
"Any individual whose exercise or enjoyment of rights secured
by the Constitution or laws of the United States, or of rights
secured by the Constitution or laws of this state, has been
interfered with, or attempted to be interfered with, as described in
subdivision (a), may institute and prosecute in his or her own name
and on his or her own behalf a civil action for damages, including,
but not limited to, damages under Section 52, injunctive relief, and
other appropriate equitable relief to protect the peaceable exercise
or enjoyment of the right or rights secured."
There are some directions for how to bring a motion to a court here and also (more comprehensive list) here. This is not legal advice but rather a suggestion to just swamp California with lawsuits pertaining to its constant violations of the Constitution, obviously, if you were to do this you should seek some help from someone who is a lawyer, as I am not (this is not legal advice, etc.). Another thing that should be obvious but is worth saying here, if you initiate a case, you as an individual bear responsibility for its outcome. Whatever you do and whatever the State does in response is completely your responsibility to handle as an individual.
But then the question is if you were to seek to challenge California's laws, what would you be challenging, exactly?
Here is a suggested list of what to challenge (see below). Add to it, subtract from it, whatever. This is just a starting point.
All the below laws were passed near the end of the last legislative session (end of 2013) and were signed into law by the Governor of California.
Again, this is not legal advice, but if you are considering launching your own lawsuit, it would be great if you would include a reference to these unconstitutional laws in your lawsuit documents so that we are all working on challenging this unconstitutional garbage together. Some of us will lose, but eventually, some of us will win. If you didn't win and you can carry on, appeal until you win. And if we all try to challenge these laws, eventually the State will lose and the laws will be declared null and void at some point in an appeals process.
AB 48 - An unconstitutional bill which would criminalize, imprison, and fine ($1000), anyone who lends, buys or receives magazines above 10 rounds.
AB 170 - An unconstitutional bill which attempts to make 'assault weapons' illegal to own for any "entity." This bill is in direct conflict with ATF trust regulations and case law regarding possession and trusts. It also violates Constitutional rights and case law which protect our ability to be free from warrantless searches of our homes.
AB 231 - An unconstitutional bill which attempts to fine and imprison gun owners who have children.
AB 500 - An unconstitutional bill, attempts to enforce "ammunition vendor permits" and establish databases on gun owners.
AB 538 - An unconstitutional bill, which attempts to selectively infringe upon 1st Amendment rights for persons also exercising 2nd Amendment rights.
AB 539 - An unconstitutional bill, which requires FFLs to "store" guns unconstitutionally seized from gun owners.
AB 711 - An unconstitutional bill, which creates a statewide ban on any lead ammunition to be used for hunting, ignores the Safer Consumer Products Regulations which provides reasonable review procedures for substances, and fails to make an exception for surplus ammo (which many own and hunt with).
AB 1131 - An unconstitutional bill which attempts to make five-year bans based on recommendations of psychologists who act as State agents.
SB 127 - An unconstitutional bill. Original language proposed "removing authority of the court," modified to accelerate State data collection.
SB 363 - An unconstitutional bill which would make it a criminal act to walk briefly away from an unloaded firearm when one is cleaning or repairing it.
SB 683 - An unconstitutional bill, would impose a firearms safety certificate requirement even on antique / Curio and Relic long guns transfers. We will challenge this law.
All of the above bills likely violate US (Federal) Constitutional Amendments I, II, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, and XIV.
New bills under consideration in California which, if passed, should also be challenged are:
SB 38 (Oppose) – Expansion of failed APPS program
SB 47 (Oppose) – Bans “Bullet Button” / maglocked firearms
SB 53 (Oppose) – New bans on ammo sales, licensing, registration
SB 199 (Oppose) – Expands regulations on BB guns
SB 396 (Oppose) – Ban on possession of standard (factory) capacity magazines
SB 808 (Oppose) – Criminalizes home-built firearms without serial numbers
AB 232 (Oppose) – Tax-payer funded gun buybacks / evidence shredders
In addition, as we have in the past, we must challenge and defeat any law that proposes to make “smart guns” with biometric handles a required element of gun ownership, regardless of whether or not it results in a ban or new requirements on existing non-biometric weapons. We will not tolerate such laws and they will be challenged and defeated in due course along with the others.
Happy hunting (and many happy suits and countersuits).
-freethink
Note: I support the FPC - part of how you can help is Link Removed to stop APPS confiscation. thanks!
This post assumes you are here in California, you are a gun owner, and you are not moving out of the State anytime soon. Lots of assumptions, I know. But at least I am framing this for a particular audience. If you aren't in the "intended reader" group as described above, you probably won't like this thread, and you perhaps should read something else and just ignore the rest of this.
With that out of the way:
Some of you who have been here a while and who spent time last year in the Firearm Politics & Second Amendment Issues forum may remember this thread which I wrote in hopes of getting information out about recent California laws, and in hopes of getting them challenged.
My endless letter writing to the Governor might have managed to help get some bills vetoed, but I've also received indications from the Governor's office that they are not even reading certain of our letters. One member of the Governor's office, a Special Assistant to the Governor, even admitted as much in an e-mail she sent me.
I had sent a copy of my correspondence with this Governor's Special Assistant and the laws that I wanted to be challenged in court to Michel and Associates, P.C., which I'd been in communication with since last year. However, Michel and Associates in late January, sent me a letter more or less indicating that they had declined to take up the matter, and suggested I look for some other lawyer who might be willing to help.
So, having searched high and low and having heard from lots of people who want to challenge California (but not having found a lawyer that will), I'm pretty much fed up with this process. I'm fairly certain that widespread civil disobedience (general refusal to obey California's unconstitutional laws) and lawsuits against California (at such time when we are prosecuted) are going to be the methods of overturning these laws. That said, I had been hoping to actually challenge the (now signed) laws passed last year before they had a chance to be used. Apparently this is not going to be possible, mostly due to that the lawyer community (so far as I have explored it) generally lacks a spine.
However, for those of you still reading this, there are some things you can do in the legal realm even without a lawyer.
Across the State of California, there are 38 million people. Approximately 10 million of us are gun owners - possibly more, but 10 million is the current best estimate (we were about 9,880,000 in Oct. of 2013, and growing at a rate of over one and a half percent per year, so do the math). That's a lowball "best guesstimate" due to that it does not count those of us who have done up 80 percenters and don't serialize them, nor does it count anything that can't be counted for whatever reason. We in California are second only to Texas in terms of sheer gun ownership, by the numbers, comparing the states.
If only one percent of us would launch our own lawsuit against the State of California, it would overwhelm the State.
After all, one percent of 10 million gun owners in California, is 100,000 people.
As you may or may not know, California Civil Code 52.1(b) states that:
"Any individual whose exercise or enjoyment of rights secured
by the Constitution or laws of the United States, or of rights
secured by the Constitution or laws of this state, has been
interfered with, or attempted to be interfered with, as described in
subdivision (a), may institute and prosecute in his or her own name
and on his or her own behalf a civil action for damages, including,
but not limited to, damages under Section 52, injunctive relief, and
other appropriate equitable relief to protect the peaceable exercise
or enjoyment of the right or rights secured."
There are some directions for how to bring a motion to a court here and also (more comprehensive list) here. This is not legal advice but rather a suggestion to just swamp California with lawsuits pertaining to its constant violations of the Constitution, obviously, if you were to do this you should seek some help from someone who is a lawyer, as I am not (this is not legal advice, etc.). Another thing that should be obvious but is worth saying here, if you initiate a case, you as an individual bear responsibility for its outcome. Whatever you do and whatever the State does in response is completely your responsibility to handle as an individual.
But then the question is if you were to seek to challenge California's laws, what would you be challenging, exactly?
Here is a suggested list of what to challenge (see below). Add to it, subtract from it, whatever. This is just a starting point.
All the below laws were passed near the end of the last legislative session (end of 2013) and were signed into law by the Governor of California.
Again, this is not legal advice, but if you are considering launching your own lawsuit, it would be great if you would include a reference to these unconstitutional laws in your lawsuit documents so that we are all working on challenging this unconstitutional garbage together. Some of us will lose, but eventually, some of us will win. If you didn't win and you can carry on, appeal until you win. And if we all try to challenge these laws, eventually the State will lose and the laws will be declared null and void at some point in an appeals process.
AB 48 - An unconstitutional bill which would criminalize, imprison, and fine ($1000), anyone who lends, buys or receives magazines above 10 rounds.
AB 170 - An unconstitutional bill which attempts to make 'assault weapons' illegal to own for any "entity." This bill is in direct conflict with ATF trust regulations and case law regarding possession and trusts. It also violates Constitutional rights and case law which protect our ability to be free from warrantless searches of our homes.
AB 231 - An unconstitutional bill which attempts to fine and imprison gun owners who have children.
AB 500 - An unconstitutional bill, attempts to enforce "ammunition vendor permits" and establish databases on gun owners.
AB 538 - An unconstitutional bill, which attempts to selectively infringe upon 1st Amendment rights for persons also exercising 2nd Amendment rights.
AB 539 - An unconstitutional bill, which requires FFLs to "store" guns unconstitutionally seized from gun owners.
AB 711 - An unconstitutional bill, which creates a statewide ban on any lead ammunition to be used for hunting, ignores the Safer Consumer Products Regulations which provides reasonable review procedures for substances, and fails to make an exception for surplus ammo (which many own and hunt with).
AB 1131 - An unconstitutional bill which attempts to make five-year bans based on recommendations of psychologists who act as State agents.
SB 127 - An unconstitutional bill. Original language proposed "removing authority of the court," modified to accelerate State data collection.
SB 363 - An unconstitutional bill which would make it a criminal act to walk briefly away from an unloaded firearm when one is cleaning or repairing it.
SB 683 - An unconstitutional bill, would impose a firearms safety certificate requirement even on antique / Curio and Relic long guns transfers. We will challenge this law.
All of the above bills likely violate US (Federal) Constitutional Amendments I, II, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, and XIV.
New bills under consideration in California which, if passed, should also be challenged are:
SB 38 (Oppose) – Expansion of failed APPS program
SB 47 (Oppose) – Bans “Bullet Button” / maglocked firearms
SB 53 (Oppose) – New bans on ammo sales, licensing, registration
SB 199 (Oppose) – Expands regulations on BB guns
SB 396 (Oppose) – Ban on possession of standard (factory) capacity magazines
SB 808 (Oppose) – Criminalizes home-built firearms without serial numbers
AB 232 (Oppose) – Tax-payer funded gun buybacks / evidence shredders
In addition, as we have in the past, we must challenge and defeat any law that proposes to make “smart guns” with biometric handles a required element of gun ownership, regardless of whether or not it results in a ban or new requirements on existing non-biometric weapons. We will not tolerate such laws and they will be challenged and defeated in due course along with the others.
Happy hunting (and many happy suits and countersuits).
-freethink
Note: I support the FPC - part of how you can help is Link Removed to stop APPS confiscation. thanks!
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