Miguel Santiago
Courtesy santiagoforassembly.com

Hacks gonna hack and autocrats gonna wield the levers of power, particularly during a national emergency. Americans — Californians included — have been buying millions of firearms since the pandemic started to affect the United States. A majority of the buyers seem to be first-time gun owners.

Gun retailers saw record gun sales levels last month and from the stores we’ve spoken to, the pace hasn’t slowed down much in April. The current crisis has proved to be a boon to petty authoritarians, particularly when it comes to law-abiding citizens trying to arm themselves.

Case in point: California Assemblyman Miguel Santiago. He’s taken note of the gun buying surge. Despite California jails opening their doors, letting out even violent offenders including those charged with “violent crimes, weapons offenses, and other serious felonies, Santiago wrote a letter pleading for Governor Gavin Newsom to wield his executive power to shutter the state’s gun retailers.

Public safety, he says, trumps personal safety and the individual right to keep and bear arms. Santiago notes that over 22,000 guns are in the hands of prohibited persons, yet he wants to ensure that law-abiding citizens can’t defend themselves with the best tool for the job.

As the distinguished Assemblyman wrote . . .

Adding more firearms to our current state of affairs perpetuates the cycle of public panic and impulsive action. An increased population of firearms in our state not only poses a greater risk to children and families who are largely confined to their homes, but also to our communities facing racially motivated or otherwise targeted hate. The people of California are grappling with a new reality brought on by COVID19 and we have a responsibility to respond to our state’s need for confidence and certainty. By suspending firearm and ammunition sales and arming Californians with strong safeguards on public health and safety reinforced by state peace officers, we can mitigate undue risks to our public.

Here’s the full letter:

santiago letter newsom gun stores

 

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

54 COMMENTS

  2. Nothing local governments or the fed do right now matter, unless its about the coronavirus directly.

    • Entirely, completely unsure about whatever point you THOUGHT you were making, but . . . with that framing??

      Whatever the point was, you were wrong, wrong, wrong.

      Have a nice day.

      • Noticed that too huh? I know senor Santiago likely has English as a 2nd language but damn😃😎😋😏

        • Allow me to assist Mr. Cruzo1981, as English might be his second language.

          No new ordanace or law which a local or federal government proposes during this time of crisis is legitimate or useful, unless it directly concerns the corona virus itself.

          There. Took a stab at it.

  5. So in his view suspending a constitutional right will restore confidence to the public? Venezuela is calling you, sir!

    • “I prefer dangerous freedom
      over peaceful slavery.”
      – Thomas Jefferson

      Thanks Dan for the above quote.

      • Thomas Jefferson wrote that in a letter to James Madison, January 30, 1787

        ****
        Also:

        “A free people ought not only to be armed, but disciplined…”
        – George Washington, First Annual Address, to both House of Congress, January 8, 1790

        “No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.”
        – Thomas Jefferson, Virginia Constitution, Draft 1, 1776

        “What country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance. Let them take arms.”
        – Thomas Jefferson, letter to James Madison, December 20, 1787

        “The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws of such a nature. They disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes…. Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.”
        – Thomas Jefferson, Commonplace Book (quoting 18th century criminologist Cesare Beccaria), 1774-1776

        “The Constitution of most of our states (and of the United States) assert that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed.”
        – Thomas Jefferson, letter to to John Cartwright, 5 June 1824

        “To disarm the people…[i]s the most effectual way to enslave them.”
        – George Mason, referencing advice given to the British Parliament by Pennsylvania governor Sir William Keith, The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adooption of the Federal Constitution, June 14, 1788

        “Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed, as they are in almost every country in Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops.”
        – Noah Webster, An Examination of the Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution, October 10, 1787

        “Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation, the existence of subordinate governments, to which the people are attached, and by which the militia officers are appointed, forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than any which a simple government of any form can admit of.”
        – James Madison, Federalist No. 46, January 29, 1788

        “The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the best and most natural defense of a free country.”
        – James Madison, I Annals of Congress 434, June 8, 1789

        “Gun control by definition affects only honest people. When a politician tells you he wants to forbid you from owning a firearm or force you to get a license, he is telling you he doesn’t trust you. That’s an insult. … Gun control is not about guns or crime. It is about an elite that fears and despises the common people”
        – Syndicated columnist Charley Reese (1937-2013)

      • Love that quote, but I prefer:

        “If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.”
        ― Samuel Adams

  7. Other than being a tool of the telecommunications industry and Chair of the Select Committee on Los Angeles County Homelessness he has no accomplishments other than election. Being the Chair of the Select Committee on Los Angeles County Homelessness and the failures attributed to this committee should be a “red flag” for this dude if there ever was one.

  9. Criminals are not prohibited from buying weapons and the state is not actively working to unarm them when they do. What they are doing is trying to disarm law abiding civilians. Safety is not enforced by law enforcement and the supreme court has upheld this. That makes this gentleman a liar as well as a noob that wants to disarm law abiding civilians.

  10. I’m sure you’re all familiar with the old bon mot: “Politics is Hollywood for ugly people.” Having spent far more time around elected politicians (from Senate down to (small) city council), I offer you this modification, which I assure you is closer to accurate: “Politics is Hollywood for ignorant, stupid, ugly people”.

    Yeah, this guy is an ignorant, ideological choad. In other news, water is wet, the sun rises in the East, and water doesn’t run uphill.”

    • He spent a lot of time practicing that pose. Hours were spent with a pose coach until he had it almost right. It’s called a power stance. It’s popular with the Tories a British conservative party who would gasp in horror that he wants to look like them. It took 20 attempts to get this picture but he feels it will make the serfs bow to his will.

      If someone were to do to this Santiago what they did to the other in “A few good men” they would be doing us a favor.

  11. So he thinks 22,000 guns are in the hands of prohibited persons? If there were any way to actually find out, I’d bet good money that there are more than 22 MILLION guns in the hands of prohibited persons, and nobody even trying to do anything about it, since that has been planned as the reason for the next push toward, as always, a registry. We’ve been being pushed toward a registry for over 50 years now, no end in sight.

    • Yep…. these people are in a concerted effort to take over american politics and the country in general…. and they protect their own…
      Americans on the other hand shun their own countrymen in favor of placing foreigners and low IQ individuals into all positions of power…. so americans are so gd stupid they have sold out their country and countrymen in favor of the way it FEELZ…..
      These dirty demonrats need to be crushed at the polls or this country is lost!

  15. Spoken like a true Jim Crow Gun Control CA democRat. This iron fist approach may be new to some but history shows it is old hat for Black Americans who were singled out and subjected to democRat Party Gun Control laws concocted specifically to deny Blacks their hard won 2A Right. Problem today is there are many who are history illiterate and unable to make the connection or they are in denial.
    You can either continue this tit for tat pissing contest or hang the racist, genocide Roots of Gun Control around the necks of its owners which is the democRat Party. Until Gun Control is recognized as being synonymous with slavery, segregation, lynching,, the KKK, Eugenics and other democRat Party race based atrocities the pissing contest will continue.

    • Mexicans and Chinese were subject to arms control over a hundred years ago in the State. The first law banned such things as numchucks and switch blades, and the carry laws were unevenly enforced. There is at least one very well-documented study outlining the racially discriminatory basis of California’s arms and gun control laws.

      • fyi
        “The Racist Origins of California’s Concealed Weapon Permit Law”
        https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2599851

        California Assemblyman Miguel Santiago is a racist pig gun control supporter. I don’t care about his cultural background. As far as I’m concerned his is a traitor to his oath of office. And he is a traitor to his culture for supporting racist gun control. That was used to suppress dark skinned people like him.

        He is just like the white homosexuals.The blacks. The jews. The chinese (Mr. rocket launcher Lee), etc, etc. Groups who have embraced their history of the government oppressing them. But they are socialist progressive in their political orientation. So that ugly history is really just a political weapon they use against their opponents.

  16. These people are such a joke. On some level I’m just waiting for the an announcement of something like “The California Strategic Hamlet Program”.

  17. A “nonviolent” offender was released from jail in Florida to protect him from the virus. He murdered someone the next day. It wasn’t in California but I am sure one of the released thugs is working to remedy that.

    • Maybe we should amend the law to add whoever releases skum like that can be charged with his crime like they do with accomplices.

  18. Perhaps charge, try and carry out the sentence for him violating his oath,Eff the would be petty Tyrant.

  19. “Adding more firearms to our current state of affairs perpetuates the cycle of public panic and impulsive action.Adding more firearms to our current state of affairs perpetuates the cycle of public panic and impulsive action…”

    Because nothing stops panic like telling people they can’t buy the item in question AT ALL.

    Ah, but he said “public panic.” I see. The reality doesn’t matter to him, he just doesn’t want it to be public.

  20. Assemblyman Santiago- put down the crack pipe and quit kissing Satans’ ass!
    Folks know that the police can not protect you and just want to be able to protect themselves and their families. Your choosing criminals over honest citizens shows which side of the fence you are on and who you follow.

  21. I have high confidence and a fair degree of certainty that no matter what these Hoplophobic dipshits do about firearms, the virus will not be impressed. If it lays down in the warmer months, a possibility but far from a certainty, there is high likelihood it will be back in the cooler weather. And we can do this whole song and dance again.

    Until we have a vaccine to prevent it and/or a proven anti-viral drug to treat it.

    On the virus topic anything else a politician spews out of his or her or its pie hole is a distraction.

    Or, as in this case, also an attempt to hitch an unrelated agenda to the Crisis of the moment.

  22. Just a slimy POS. Like, the crap left behind on the driveway when a snail or slug slithers by. Disgusting goo.

  23. Leftist pieces of sh*t, like this scumbag, are the enemy. No peace or quarter.

  24. I’m sure this public servant has no arms at home. He wants to be a serf just like the rest of us.

  25. Hey Dan,
    As long as we’re speaking on the importance of the proper use of words, I think the headline should be corrected to “Stopping Gun Sales in California Will Restore…”

  26. Is that demotater in the country legally? Is his green card up to date? Need to purge CA and send them back across the border.

  28. Impulsive actions like kissing and shitting in the streets?

    Lawful gun owners are not a problem.

    But the President should cut off all federal funding to Cali now that Newsome wants to give illegals funds due to the loss of work.
    Let Cali pay for its own stupidity

  29. Does anyone have a problem with him writing a personal appeal to the Gov on State letterhead? He isn’t conducting State business here. It is personal business. In some states this would be a big red ethical flag but maybe using state resources for personal use is OK in California?

  30. Funny that Santiago is pushing for this when he used to run with gangs in his high school days at Chatsworth and used to fight in brawls, while his gangster buddies would threaten people with guns.

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