CA - Gun bills not only bad for citizens, bad for CA

[FWiedner]

Gun bills not only bad for citizens, they're bad for California

As an emergency room doctor, you'd expect Rob Hamilton to have a clear opinion on firearms.

And he does.

"What burns me is this legislation basically aims at taking my guns away," said Hamilton, an ER doctor at Mercy Medical Center who also writes a wilderness medicine column for the Record Searchlight. "Sure, it's ammunition legislation, but what it really comes down to is they want to take our guns away, and it's just not right."

Hamilton was talking about two pieces of legislation currently before the California Legislature, SB357 and AB352.

These are bad bills that will punish law-abiding citizens in the name of catching criminals.

SB357 would require a unique serial number be etched on the side of every bullet sold in California, whether it be a loaded cartridge from a manufacturer like Remington, or on loose bullets for reloaders. AB352 would require all semi-automatic handgun manufacturers to put an identifying microscopic characters in all pistols with the make, model and serial number of each handgun. When you fire that new Glock 17, or that Kimber .45-caliber handgun, the pistol would imprint each cartridge with the information.

What each bill would do would ostensibly ban firearms in California, since ammunition makers and firearm companies will not spend the millions of dollars it would take to retool their factories to meet these new business challenges.

"(Attorney General) Bill Lockyer, Senator (Joseph) Dunn and the Department of Justice have unequivocally proven that they are completely ignorant about how ammunition is manufactured," Sam Paredes, executive director of the 30,000-member Gun Owners of California, said of SB357, written by Sen. Dunn (D-Garden Grove). "(AB352) is an insidious bill that might well ban the sale of pistols in California."

How? Let's take SB357 as an example. More than 90 percent of the ammunition manufactured in the United States is produced by three companies and their subsidiaries. Those companies make about 15 million handgun cartridges a day, including .22-caliber long rifle cartridges, or about 173 cartridges a second. Even if it took a quarter of a second to serialize each bullet, record the information for their records and contend with quality control to make sure the line complies with the language in the bill, it would take 34 days to make as many bullets as are made in one day, according to information provided by Gun Owners of California.

Making ammo is a high-volume, low-profit business; instead of retrofitting plants, manufacturers will abandon the California market. Law-abiding gun owners won't be able to walk into Wal-Mart and pick up even a box of .22-caliber shells.

But the criminals will still have plenty of cartridges, you can bet on that. And you can bet they won't be stamped.

Gun owners, hunters, sportsmen, it's time to get those pens out, fire up the computer to send a few hundred e-mails and start dialing the switchboard at the California Legislature -- SB357 and AB352 are just plain bad for responsible firearm owners in this state.

And start doing it soon (phone numbers, e-mail addresses and office addresses are available online at www.gunownersca.com

AB352 passed the Senate's Committee on Pubic Safety on Tuesday; also on Tuesday, SB357 made it out of the Assembly's Public Safety Committee. Next up, a hearing for both in each house's respective appropriation committees, possibly as early as this week.

SB357 has come under fire from the likes of Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Duncan Hunter, chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Armed Services. Arkansas is home to Remington and stands to lose millions if the California market is abandoned. Hunter objects to the bill, since these same manufacturers also make ammunition for the military and law enforcement. Slowing down the production process would mean less ammo for the military, the Shasta County Sheriff's Department, the men and women on patrol with the Redding Police Department. But not the criminals. No way, no how.

We simply can't wait to see these bills reach Gov. Schwarzenegger's desk and hope for a veto.

http://www.redding.com/redd/od_columnists/article/0,2232,REDD_17547_3900613,00.html

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[Mikey]

Hey, if Schwartzenagger is soooo stupid as to sign a bill like that into law, then kalifornika deserves to be cut off from the rest of the US and all gun owners in that state should be given a discount in buying homes or land out of state.  Then it would become part of Mexico and we can re-establish the border.........

Furthermore, ammo companies should refuse to sell to police, State Nat'l Guard or State Reserves in the PRK and gun makers should go right along with them.  If the people who make the equipment and materials that would be subject to ban don't decide to make the move 'outta town', they will have to watch their businesses fail as the laws will drive them out.  If they get out first, they can leave the state on their own terms and leave the state to its own means.  Just a thought.  Mikey.

[Leverdude]

Mikey,

I think you've got something there. The gun & ammo manufacturers should refuse selling their products to ANY agency of ANY Gov't that infringes on the bill of rights. That would cut just about all the federal & state police out of the circle & likely either bring about change for the better or force their hand & make them show their true intentions. In other words either they would back off & respect our rights or come on full steam & force independent manufacturers to sell them the products we just aint smart enough to use safely. If I understand correctly Barret has refused to sell their 50 cal guns to California because California deprived law abiding folks the right to buy them.  Why do police need 50 Cal weapons anyway, if I'm not mistaken police are just citizens who work for a town or state.  :roll:

[spraynpray]

That is just a "backdoor" to banning guns, if the ammo is too expensive to shoot, fewer people will shoot, fewer people will "fight" for their rights, then the commie's win.