CA: More Gun Control FAILS.

[Spot77]

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2010/09/01/calif_lawmakers_reject_open_carry_gun_ban/

SACRAMENTO, Calif.—California lawmakers have rejected a bill that would have made it illegal to carry unloaded guns in public.

Lawmakers did not act on a second bill that would have required owners of rifles and shotguns to register their weapons. The bill fell short during an initial vote Monday

 

[Maverick0313]

Slowly.....we win slowly.....

 

[jonnyl]

Good news! However, I'd hate to see Maryland's version of appeasing the 2A crowd be to allow unloaded carry.

 

[Patrick]

Great news and surprising to me. I thought this one was a done deal.

Happy to be wrong. I doubt CA is suddenly getting 2A-friendly. More likely terrified of upsetting some voters right before the biggest election in years (state and federal). I'm sure Jerry Brown really did not want to answer questions on this one.

But just maybe it is a small awakening...???

The irony is that CA is now at the vanguard of 2A rights, with all the cases ongoing out there. I'd love nothing more than the 9th Circuit to give us what we want. That could send a signal everywhere and end some fights. But I think we're going to end up having to go all the way again.

 

[Vic]

Does my heart good. They took them away one piece at a time and that is how we are getting them back.

Vic

 

[WeaponsCollector]

Maybe there's hope for California after all!

 

[K-Romulus]

The anti-RKBA contingent tried to bring it up again at the last minute, but it failed in a crazy procedural fight.

Here is an article describing those last moments:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/sep/01/open-carry-ban-falls-short-surprise/

(...)However, as the final minutes slipped away, Calderon did cut off debate on those bills.

Saldana complained that Calderon had “lost a step” and was outmaneuvered by Republicans.

At one point she was pleading with Calderon, her hands squarely on his chest, almost pushing him backward. Each time he strode off.

“It’s dead,” she said, seconds after the Assembly declared that no more measures, other than urgency bills and budget-related legislation, could be brought up.

Sam Paredes, executive director of Gun Owners of California, was clearly pleased with the tactics Republicans had used to save the day for gun-rights.

“We’ll take victory any way we can get it,” he said. (....)

 

[Wynter]

I grew up in Maryland and have been away for about the last ten years. I lived in CA from 2002 until 2009 and know that the gun laws there are seriously oppressive. There does not seem to be a unifying organization that is pro 2A in the state. This surprises me because outwardly they were very liberal, but San Diego especially is very conservative. Glad we left.

 

[Patrick]

I grew up in Maryland and have been away for about the last ten years. I lived in CA from 2002 until 2009 and know that the gun laws there are seriously oppressive. There does not seem to be a unifying organization that is pro 2A in the state. This surprises me because outwardly they were very liberal, but San Diego especially is very conservative. Glad we left.

That would be CalGuns. Big group responsible for much of the action going on in 2A right now. They have teamed with the SAF and are pushing cases with nationwide implication. Some of their work could help us in MD. CalGuns pushed the first case to get 2A incorporated against the states (though McDonald later settled the matter).

Don't feel bad, though. I lived in CA during those same years (still pay CA income taxes part-time and own a place in LA). You'd have to go looking for them to find them. It's not like the MSM will routinely quote anyone from the group in a gun story. To get the pro-2A side they always interview some gun store owner, rather than risk pointing readers to a statewide group that unifies their views. I think there is an active effort in CA news to make pro-2A people feel isolated.


This explains a lot:

Calderon said he was reluctant to take a drastic step to stop debate, saying “Republicans go crazy” when they do that. Democrats still need Republican votes later this year for a budget deal and other urgency measures and could remember not being able to speak on one of their top priorities, gun control.

 

[swinokur]

Good news! However, I'd hate to see Maryland's version of appeasing the 2A crowd be to allow unloaded carry.

how can an unloaded gun be considered arms?

 

[Patrick]

how can an unloaded gun be considered arms?

Good question after recent rulings. I think the Ginsburg definition cited in Heller is going to be quite the mainstay of 2A proceedings for a long, long time:

In Muscarello v. United States, 524 U. S. 125 (1998), in the course
of analyzing the meaning of “carries a firearm” in a federal criminal statute, JUSTICE GINSBURG wrote that “urely a most familiar meaning is, as the Constitution’s Second Amendment . . . indicate: ‘wear, bear, or carry . . . upon the person or in the clothing or in a pocket, for the purpose . . . of being armed and ready for offensive or defensive action in a case of conflict with another person.’ ”. We think that JUSTICE GINSBURG accurately captured the natural meaning of “bear arms.”

My Emphasis, above.

Note that her definition involved "ready for offensive or defensive action in a case of conflict". Now her opinion there was in the minority dissent at the time, but the case was specifically about the meaning of "transport" when it came to arms, specifically the conditions of required to consider a gun in a car as "transported".

Heller and McDonald essentially affirmed her dissenting opinion as the standard for "bear arms". I think the "ready" adjective is interesting, in that functional guns are always "arms", but at what point is the gun "functional" and "ready"?

The court defined "bear arms". They also defined "keep and bear" as fundamentally inseparable sides of the same coin. It's now up to them to define them as strictly protected. At that point, CA and MD prohibitionist, anti-carry laws can take a long walk off a short pier.

 

[Markp]

I am shocked... it failed! I am also happy to see common sense prevail.

 

[DeadIDik]

There was a big push from a offroad forum yesterday to contact Kalifornia's reps about this bill. Alot of people made alot of calls.