California Senate Passes Gun Ban, Requires Permit & Background Check to Buy Ammo

05.30.2013

California Senate Passes Gun Ban, Requires Permit & Background Check to Buy Ammo

original article written by Net Advisor™

SACRAMENTO, California. As we tried to warn last March 30, 2013, California’s Super Majority Government passed seven “anti-gun” bills in the state’s Senate.

[1] The bills would (partial list):

1. BAN Semi-Automatic Weapons with Removable Magazines (SB 396);

2. BAN Ammunition Clips that Can Fire More Than 10 Rounds (SB 396). This bill would be RETROACTIVE that even lawful purchases of higher-magazine clips would be illegal to own;

3. Reclassify Certain Shotguns as “Assault Weapons” (SB 567);

4. Regulate Ammo. Require Background Checks to Buy Ammunition and Require a State Permit to Buy Ammo (a $50 fee plus tax);

5. Ammo Registry. California Department of Justice (DOJ) would create a “list of qualified buyers” that would be checked by dealers selling ammunition. This is nothing but a reverse gun registry. Who would buy ammo if you didn’t own a firearm?

6. Gun Registry. Register all AR-15-types with California State Dept. of Justice (DOJ). California SB374 to require existing AR-15 owners to also register them with the state.

— Sources: Los Angeles Times (PDF),  Reuters, and USA Today (PDF)

Whether the journalist at Reuters understood the language of the Senate passed law is disconcerting if taken literally.

Except for the military M4A1 Carbine which was NEVER available to private citizens in the USA, ALL firearms are “semi-automatic” – which means they fire ONE shot with each pull of the trigger.

We would like to believe that the Reuters journalist who wrote the article meant that AR-15‘s would be banned and not ALL semi-automatic weapons.

If there was a ban of all semi-automatic weapons, then EVERY firearm short of the average pump-action shot-gun would be banned under the law.

This would of course be unconstitutional as the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled in  United States v. Cruikshank (1875), Presser v. Illinois (1886), Miller v. Texas (1894), and again recently in McDonald v. Chicago (2010).

The U.S. Supreme Court determined the Second Amendment applies to the individual states. The High Court held that individuals have the right to “keep and bear arms” (Source: Cornell Law School).

[2] Safety Class Already on the Books
The state also would require one to pass a firearms safety class under SB 693. The odd thing about this bill is that the fundamental law is already on the books and has been for over a decade. In California one cannot even try to purchase a firearm without a State Basic Firearms Safety Certificate (Source: CA DOJ PDF, Guide 56pps PDF).

[3] Firearms & Violence Facts

• FACT: Gun violence is the lowest it ever has been in 50 years (Report, Point #7).

• FACT: In California, violent crime has DECREASED since 2004 with the increase of AR-15 gun sales (Report, Point #8).

Chicago has some of if not the toughest gun laws in the USA, yet the murder rate just keeps going higher as people in Chicago are defenseless against gangs who ignore the gun laws. This proves more gun bans and regulations do not decrease gun violence. In fact, the opposite is true as we will read more in a minute.

• FACT: In 2012, more Americans were killed in Chicago than U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan (Report).

• FACT: Since the total gun (and knife) ban in Mexico, some 70,000 people have been killed by firearms (Report, Point #11).

Don’t let facts get in the way with the political left’s agenda.

• FACT: A 1961 State Department report shows that left government has been trying to disarm Americas for 51 years (Report, Point #22).

[4] California Fails to Address Crime. Punishes Law-biding Citizens
Nothing in the 7 laws California’s Senate passed can prevent any crime from occurring. None of the bills address how the state will go after gangs, prosecute or keep violent felons in jail.

In fact, the state is releasing some 46,000 prisoners from jail back to the public to re-offend its citizens as the Supreme Court ruled due to “prisoner overcrowding.” The state could build more jails, but it seems that Democrats aren’t interested in keeping felons in jail citing a “funding shortage.” Instead the state will increase its financial risk by go into debt and spend billions on a failed rail system that will never recoup costs.

The passage of California Senate’s ‘anti-gun’ bills say that it will prevent felons from getting weapons. Walk through parts of Oakland, or South Central Los Angeles on a late Saturday night and see how safe you feel with cell phone in hand ready to call for help, only to be put on hold by LAPD due to the backlog of 911 calls. Police are underfunded, and this is the state’s job to fix it.

The fact is felons already cannot purchase firearms under existing federal law.

“Congress passed the first blanket prohibition on felons carrying guns in the Gun Control Act of 1968, which made it illegal for felons to possess a gun any under circumstances.

The Firearm Owners’ Protection Act, passed in 1986, reinforced the ban on felons carrying guns, and also banned people who have been convicted of a crime punishable by more than one year of imprisonment from possessing guns.”

— Source: FelonyGuide.com

So why is California passing stricter gun laws? Democrat legislators claim it is because of Colorado (“Dark Night Theater“) and Connecticut (Newtown school) shootings by (deranged) persons. Since the Democrats in the U.S. Senate BLOCKED (PDF) similar legislation, the State of California has decided to go after law-biding citizens now.

Dianne Feinstein who has been in office since 1992 was the author of the so called “Assault Weapons Ban” in the U.S. Senate also happens to be behind California’s anti-gun bans. Feinstein is one of California’s two (D) State Senators.

[5] Not from California? You are Paying for This Too!
The State of California is facing massive debt including some $200 Billion in unfunded liabilities. The state has borrowed $10 Billion from the Federal Government (ie: taxpayers everywhere else in the USA) to help cover the state’s jobless benefits and $313 million for state disability insurance trust fund (Source: Wall Street Journal).

People should be pleased to know that living in any U.S. state; U.S. taxpayers are helping fund liberal government in California.

[6] California Bill Unconstitutional?
Another controversy of SB 396, is that would ban even LAWFUL possession of high capacity magazines retroactively regardless when they were acquired.

“This bill, commencing July 1, 2014, would make it an offense for any person to possess any large-capacity magazine, regardless of the date the magazine was acquired, punishable by imprisonment in a county jail not exceeding one year.

The bill would authorize various methods by which a person in lawful possession of a large-capacity magazine may dispose of the magazine prior to the July 1, 2014, prohibition on possession.”

— Source: California Senate Bill 396 (PDF)

Ex Post Facto
Congress is prohibited from passing laws retroactively that would result in a lawful citizen would suddenly become subject to criminal prosecution.

“No bill of attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.”

— Article I, Section 9 of the United States Constitution (Source: Cornell Law School)

Case laws include Calder v. Bull (1798), and Bouie v. City of Columbia (1964).

ALL U.S. States are also prohibited from passing ex post facto laws.

“No state shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation; grant letters of marque and reprisal; coin money; emit bills of credit; make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts; pass any bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law impairing the obligation of contracts, or grant any title of nobility.”

— Article I, Section 10 of the United States Constitution (Source: Cornell Law School)

It appears that the left anti-Second Amendment Democrats are not interested in Constitution law or citizens legal rights as the above data suggests high Constitutional challenge.

Despite this fact, the seven ‘anti-gun’ bills passed by the California State Senate now will go to the State Assembly, also controlled by Democrats.

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Ammo image credit: Wired. Other images credit by their respective owner where noted or if known.

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