Rob Bonta
California Attorney General Rob Bonta (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File)

“The problem with the good moral character policy that the attorney general seems to be encouraging is that it’s completely subjective and would allow a city to evaluate an applicant based on their politics, not on whether they’re a threat or not or whether they’re actually some kind of a bad character,” [California Rifle and Pistol Association president Chuck] Michel told The Epoch Times.

“So we’re deeply concerned that that kind of subjective, politicized criteria creeps into this process. It’s something that the Supreme Court warned against, and it’s something that will definitely bring legal action if cities or counties try and adopt something like that.”

Michel also said that “trying to evaluate somebody’s good moral character by the comments that they make, or the articles—maybe they don’t even say anything—they may just curate, pass along, share an article” on social media is fraught with peril.

As an example, he said he follows Vice President Kamala Harris on social media to “see what she’s doing, not because I agree with her politics.” Many people do this in an effort to expose themselves “to a lot of different viewpoints, if you’re trying to actually get to the truth about things.”

“And you’re going to be judged for that … by someone who’s politically inclined, perhaps, to try and find a way not to issue permits,” Michel said. “So they’re looking for things that they can use as an excuse to not issue a permit—that’s what the subtext of Bonta’s alert really is.

“This is what we’re calling the blue resistance. It’s part of [California Gov.] Gavin Newsom’s strategy, the governor of New York’s strategy, to minimize the real effect of the Supreme Court ruling and try and get around it by setting up all these other types of roadblocks. Basically, red tape the right to death.”

Michel stressed that he’s “100 percent against hate speech and racism, but anything can be called hate speech, and anything can be labeled racism these days, so I’m very nervous about a policy that does some kind of a blanket [approach].”

These days, it isn’t clear what “hate” and “racism” mean, he said.

— Matthew Vadum in Woke California AG Tells Gun-Permitting Officials to Deny Applicants Based on Politics

38 COMMENTS

  1. Looks like conspiracy to deprive a Constitutional right under color of law, a Federal felony. Be pretty cool and appropriate if the US Marshalls arrived and this dickweed’s office to arrest him.

    • Individuals cannot bring suit under 18 USC, 242. Must file complaint with DOJ; DOJ decides whether or not to prosecute.
      https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/LSB/LSB10495
      (note: link is PDF download)

      If “242” suits were all that effective/existent regarding Second Amendment violations, we would have long seen them heralded in every gun forum going. We, on this blog, aren’t suddenly discovering a legal attack against 2A violations that have been overlooked by attorneys for decades. 242 law suits are not a magic bullet.

      • It would be a terrible thing if someone was to post that Leftist Scum’s ™ personal info on line so that the good people of California could tell him in person what they think of him depriving someone’s civil rights… 🙂

        IOW, play the same game on them what they are doing to the Supreme Court justices they hate… 🙂

      • If “242” suits were all that effective/existent regarding Second Amendment violations, we would have long seen them heralded in every gun forum going.

        Further proof that the Deep State is in control regardless of POTUS.
        The DOJ heavy handedness only gets exercised by the Left.

  2. Dear Gavin you’re ugly, your momma dresses you funny, and you’re dumb as a stump. If you have a dollar you can kiss my entire ass. How is that eroding tax base working out for you? If you want satisfaction you can challenge my fat old ass to a wrestling match WWE style. Come on pretty boy you can take a fat old man

  3. Shocking exactly no one. But hey, maybe in another 5-10 years we can get a court to strike this down. Then 5-10 years after that strike down the next iteration. And then…

    • Takes too long.

      Run the same game on them they run on us.

      Make their families feel uncomfortable to leave their houses or to eat out because peaceful protestors will loudly express their displeasure to them.

      Saul Alinsky ‘Rules For Radicals’ 101 :

      Number 4 – “Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules.”… 🙂

      • Agree Geoff! And cop’s families. They are the gestapo foot soldiers “only following order’s!”

      • OK, run the logic on that forward. Given current circumstances, where does it go politically, legally and socially speaking? What level and time frame are you thinking would work? What organization would be needed? What counter punches should you be ready for?

        Much as someone on another thread might think this is yet more cynicism, I’m not cynical at all. Just out of patience because we’re rapidly running out of time yet most act as if everything’s fine and dandy, just gotta get Ol’ Nosecandy Mitch back to majority leader and everything will be right with the world. No, that’s not how this work. [For the umteenth time, how does international shipping affect your 2A rights? If you can’t answer this, buy lube cause you’re gonna need it. If you won’t even think or are gonna whine about “homework” then don’t buy lube, maybe a good dryfuck will teach you something.]

        So, really, where does that go Geoff? How does it work? Are there other methods that might be more effective or might augment such a tactic? What shortfalls exist and how would those be countered?

        The Left is fucking organized. Quite well organized, probably more than 99% of the rest of Americans realize. Keep that in mind. They’re not just going to take such a thing sitting down.

        • “So, really, where does that go Geoff? How does it work? Are there other methods that might be more effective or might augment such a tactic?”

          What do you suggest? Right now, all I see is hand-wringing and bitching-and-moaning, while they are laughing.

          What do you suggest to be done that will make them think “Damn, we better not do that again!”.?

          They understand one thing and one thing only – Force…

        • No, Geoff, I don’t wring my hands, nor do I waste time bitching for the sake of bitching. I’m too lazy and manipulative to do that.

          “There are intellectual tools that are far more valuable than facts, in part because they are harder won. You can wield these tools with both power and precision, and with them, you may discover things that nobody has even yet framed a question for.”

          What do I suggest? Well, I’ve been talking about that for years…

          1. People need to familiarize themselves with the mechanisms and characteristics of propaganda. They need to be able to spot it, assess it and dismantle it effectively in an argumentative sense. Study your enemy and do your homework.

          Learn useful argumentative strategy and realize who the target audience in any debate really is. (It’s not your opponent.)

          2. Those people then need to spread that message. Pointing out the propaganda to others, and assisting them in becoming resistant to it as well. In doing so, create new ambassadors. This can be done in a variety of ways, one of the more important ones being mentoring young people instead of shitting all over them for doing as they’ve been instructed for their entire life.

          3. Conservatives need to get their shit together as a group vis a vis actual principles.

          Are they really for freedom as they claim? I don’t believe that many of them are because they actively tell me that they are not. Which, by the by, is why I won’t take the title even though I tend to agree with them in many respects. Conservatives need to figure out some actual principles and then stick to them. If they can’t do that then it’s all just “will to power” bullshit anyway and the Republic is a dying patient we should just put down.

          Yes, Conservatives need a “Come to Jesus” moment. And in that moment they need to embrace the concept that just because you don’t like people doing something doesn’t mean that you can make it .gov’s business. Be Van Buren (How many “conservatives” can even tell you who that was? Not many, trust me, I’ve asked). It’s not .gov’s job.

          Part of this comes from reading and investigating things you’ve been told not to. Icky stuff like how your enemy works or how they’ve manipulated you by looking at those things you’ve been told not to.

          Look, I bring up Nietzsche a lot. There’s a reason for this. He’s the warning sign Conservatives were taught to ignore. But why is that?

          Because he told you in the late 1800’s exactly what the Left would do in the 1900’s and they don’t want you seeing their playbook so they educate you not to read it (see point #1). Like Ibn Al-Ghazali, they pick the books you read and which ones you don’t and thereby control what you think and how you think.

          Don’t take my word for it, JBP spells it out in the link below in the first couple of minutes.

          It’s a neat trick. Damned dangerous too.

          Therefore…

          4. Gut the GOP in primaries and rebuild based on actual principles or pack this shitshow in and admit that we’re rapidly going down the road of two-party Fascism where freedom’s dead and the only thing that matters is who has the power. The current GOP is utter trash. Mostly RINOs who pander and grift. Having every election, for most people, come down to a choice of whom to vote against is unsustainable and we’ve been doing that since I’ve been able to vote.

          Government is very, very rarely about telling other people how to live. The GOP is way, way, way too amenable to thinking that .gov exists to push an agenda on other people. In that regard they are really not that different than the Dems.

          5. Become active and set up organizations, not just political ones but social ones. Companies that build culture, social clubs that do the same. They can be religious or not. It doesn’t matter. It matters that they reach out and influence people. The Left is organized to the hilt. What, you think they tripped, fell down and came up controlling every major institution in this country outside the SCOTUS? They’re just that lucky?

          No, they’re organized. We can be too. But try telling everyone at the range that we should all go pick up trash on the roads on a specific day and see how many takers you get. Ditto attending school board meetings or city council meetings.

          ===

          Is any of this glamorous? No, but wins by attrition are wins that are very, very hard for the loser to come back from especially if you keep grinding the enemy after you’ve won. Being able to grind politically like that is no different than wrestling or Jiu Jitsu. It takes WORK to get to that point. And the Left is putting in that work. We are not.

          My goal isn’t, and never has been, temporary victory. As I’ve said here on TTAG before I want to destroy the Left for generations to come and we need to get on that or there won’t be a country left to defend from these asshats. The timeline on this is shorter than a lot of people seem to realize.

          A huge amount of what I’ve said here in the past two years centers around a theme. Social instability. Virtually everything going on today, on a host of fronts, contributes to this. Past a certain point you’re talking an internecine war that kills 100 million people. That’s suboptimal at best. Turning into Sri Lanka, killing a third of ourselves and then maybe pulling out of this nosedive seems like a bad idea to me. I’d rather do something smarter.

          Letting demographics grind the Left to dust is something that, while inevitable, will take 40-60 years. So, even if you’re not as pessimistic as I am, because you disagree or you just don’t look at the same datasets, or because I’m wrong (I’d like to be) you still can’t actually believe that the US can survive the status quo ante for decades longer.

          ===

          Now, as to the specific question of protesting and using force… that depends on tactics.

          Generally I’m against it, honestly. It doesn’t win friends, it scares people. Now you’re in a match to scare the public more? Nah.

          I’d suggest that your regular suggestion of using Alinsky’s Rules is a better tactic. But I wouldn’t go after D pols because you’re never going to scare them as badly as the Left already has without starting an actual civil war. I wouldn’t go after R pols either because outside agitators will get in and turn every protest into another J6.

          But Lefty institutions, academics and thinkers… Well now, Rules 4, 5 and 12 seem almost custom built for going after those things.

          For example; one could tweak rule 12 and go after Ibram X. Kendi. But better yet, you make him the polarizing figure by going after everywhere he speaks with a very loud, very shrill, very hard demand that Kendi debate rather than demagogue. DEBATE ME BRAH!

          If everywhere he goes the universities suddenly want him to go up against someone like Ben Shapiro, Kendi’s gonna STFU eventually because he’s gonna get tired of being destroyed. Historically, this is actually a great way to cancel people like him.

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIU8WAFixWs

  4. It is laughable to hear a California liberal, or any liberal talk about judging people by their moral character.

    • “I’m sure Merrick will order the civil rights division to get right on that.”

      Be a real shame if ‘peaceful protestors’ were to make sleeping difficult for the AG and his family by loudly vocalizing their displeasure at 3 AM… 🙂

  5. “…minimize the real effect of the Supreme Court ruling and try and get around it by setting up all these other types of roadblocks. Basically, red tape the right to death.”

    In an instance like that, could the SCotUS send a nasty letter to that P.O.S. telling him to knock that crap off right now?

  6. Sorry being the Grammer 🙋

    Charachter? 🤔

    So the guy who doxxed California firearm owners talks of “good moral character”?

    Amazing how one of the most punchable faces on the planet just got more “punch appeal”. 🤔

  7. Again, just because it needs to be brought up. The statute of limitations is not 2 years. He is stating he wants local governments to violate the 2nd amendment…knowingly. We now have a Supreme Court ruling on that.

    Id really recommend that local governments opt to NOT follow that directive. He will not be there for your when the DOJ comes knocking on your door.

    • Bidens department of justice is not going after anyone preventing concealed carry of firearms .
      Merrick Garland is the Attorney General, and Obama attempted to appoint him to the Supreme Court .
      He is a democrat partisan hack and will not prosecute in this case.
      If the president does not order the DOJ to enforce the Supreme Court’s edict, the Supreme Court has no other way to enforce .
      And I seriously doubt whether a future President Trump or DeSantis will send in federal troops to enforce gun laws.

  8. Deny a permit over moral character? Well, no one from Hollywood or the California regime will ever get a carry permit.

  9. What we have here is a failure to communicate to an over abundance of tyrannical assholes.

  10. If it were me living in California i’d look into the ‘secret’ moral character of Rob Bonta ….

    hint….lots of ‘revelations’ there

    just sayin….

  11. Anyone above a politician would seem to have a great moral character. Is that what we are using as a measuring stick?

    Or if our standard is way above that, does that mean no politicians would qualify? Not even to have armed guards because is they are working for a lowlife politicians, their moral character comes into question?

  12. The simplest answer to any politician who advocates breaking the law is to tell them that if they can disobey the law so can we. Recall them, vote them out of office, or picket their homes until they quit. Perhaps getting a taste of their own medicine will make life as uncomfortable for them as they make it for Law Abiding Citizens.

  13. Worried? I think that the new law is ripe for judicial challenge already. Maybe I should go back and read Bruen again, but the way I read it the first time was that ALL subjective criteria were in the crapper. That would encompass the subjective determination, based on a review of a slew of information that is required to be submitted, as to an applicant’s good moral character. That slew includes access to all social media accounts for the last three years, three letters of reference, including one from any cohabitant/spouse/significant other, a personal interview, possible personal interviews of the persons making reference letters, a psych interview (optional), and whatever they can think of to increase the cost of the process–which is to be paid for by the applicant. If anything, just like all the other laws reacting to Bruen (and in particular the massive broadening of “sensitive places” are intended to make it as difficult, expensive, and time consuming as possible to obtain a CCW in this state. And all of these new rules apply to renewals as well, which occur every two years. And if that were not enough, carrying a loaded concealed firearm is now a felony. (It used to be a wobbler.) I am discouraged.

    • In theory, the test is now supposed to be history and tradition… and that’s it. But it will take a bunch of lawsuits to cement that in lower courts and root out tons of bad gun laws over the next several years. Bruen was very clear (and clearly written), so I think the left is badly overplaying its hand right now… but Bruen is only ammunition for the fight, not the fight itself.

  14. Yes, the commiecrats need to put up Road blocks to the 2nd Amendment because they know it takes a long time to go through the courts to get something repealed.

  15. Seems to me, his statement is contrary to the intent Justic Thomas wrote in his Majority Opinion. Any “Subjective” limitation/term of use for an enumerated Right is Unconstitutional.

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