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California Senate passes a ban on the open carry of unloaded handguns

“A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” – Second Amendment of the U.S. Bill of Rights

Yesterday, on September 8, the California state Senate approved  a bill that would prohibit openly carrying unloaded handguns in public. Senator Kevin de León (Democrat, Los Angeles) says that open-carry demonstrations frighten onlookers  and create confrontations with police, who must respond to complaints. (The open carry of loaded handguns is already illegal, as is concealed carry without a permit that is virutally impossible to obtain in California if you are not a member of the law enforcement community, or, ironically [and sometimes hypocritically], a member of the government, including some vocal anti-gun legislators).

Or do such demonstrations merely frighten HIM…? :-) Perhaps he would feel more comfortable in a totalitarian country where such demonstrations are outlawed, and should consider relocation…? :-)

AB 144 would make it a misdemeanor to carry an exposed firearm in a public place, street, or vehicle, with exceptions for hunting and shooting events. The bill was approved on Thursday by 21-18, and returns to the Assembly for a final vote on amendments. The measure was supported by law enforcement groups (yes, sometimes our Constitutional Rights make more work for law enforcement) and opposed by Republican lawmakers. Republican Senator Joel Anderson of La Mesa says that the bill “risks turning law-abiding citizens into criminals.”

“In My Humble Opinion (IMHO)”, the turning of law-abiding firearm-owning citizens into criminals (who can then be “picked up” at leisure) has been the overall legislative plan of the California State Legislature with regard to the erosion of Second Amendment Rights. Actually, this is more than my humble opinion, it is merely an objective view of the history of legislation passed in Sacramento. The practice lends new and unintended meaning to the bumper sticker, “When guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns.” Most gun owners did not expect to become outlaws.

There is a law on the books about “microstamping” that required the technology in California in 2010. The only problem? The technology (arguably) does not exist yet! 😉 One should really make sure that a technology EXISTS in the “real world” before passing a law requiring it! :-)

If you think that the “reality distortion field” is large over Cupertino, you should SEE the one over Sacramento! :-)

My prediction? That yet another stupid, unconstitutional law will be passed with AB 144, and it will have to be overturned in the courts, which actually understand law. (As happened with California’s ammunition law AB 962, signed by then-governor Arnold Schwarzenegger….)

As for Kevin de Leon, I would suggest remedial American History courses starting just a bit before Lexington and Concord, with memorization of the poem, “Concord Hymn” by Ralph Waldo Emerson.

It is a national tragedy that individuals who are so out-of-step with mainstream American thought and values enter state and federal legislatures. There are many other occupations in which they could earn a living while causing far less damage to the United States of America and to the states in which they reside.

(Note added September 11, 2011: The Assembly passed the bill on a 44 to 30 vote, sending it to the desk of Governor Jerry Brown on Friday. Governor Brown, PLEASE do the right thing, and the LEGAL thing – VETO this bill. Thank you. While you are at it, please VETO AB 809 by Mike Feuer, which would mandate retention of records of long-gun [rifles and shotguns] sales starting in January 2014, as is currently the case for handguns.)

(Note added September 17, 2011: A discussion of the introduction of AB 144 by Assemblyman Anthony Portantino, D-La Cañada Flintridge in January of this year, as well as a link to TWO recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions that seem to be “at odds” with AB 144, are in my earlier blog entry. If you are a Californian, please phone Governor Jerry Brown’s office and urge him to VETO this bill. Save the courts some money! :-) )

-Bill at

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