“We were made aware early this afternoon, directly by the staff of the Appropriations Committee, that SB 249 will not be heard on Thursday, as was previously reported,” gunownersca.com reports. “They have decided to let the bill die, due to the enourmous pressure put on the Capitol by the pro-gun community led by Gun Owners of California! Be assured, that our excellent staff has made sure this information is accurate, before calling off the troops.  We were the first to receive this news, from our contacts in the State Capitol, thanks to the work and dedication of our Executive Director and Chief Lobbyist, Sam Paredes.  Given our work in the building, every day, we are confident in this victory.” [h/t Don]

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44 COMMENTS

  1. Thats a surprise, good news for California gun owners. its about time something went their way

  2. This thing is not dead until midnight Friday. Majority Dem control means that it can pop back up or be added to the agenda at the appropriations committee hearing tomorrow.

    This is far from over.

    We can celebrate Saturday morning, if we can celebrate.

    -Gene

    • Thanks for keeping us on our toes! I was just about to pop a cork. I guess I’ll just save it for the weekend….

    • I am actually a hard-core liberal, but I have to admit that is a pretty dumb law. If you are going to pass a law that ticks off every gun owner in the state, then why not pass a law that will do some good?

      Considering how California usually works, I am surprised they have not passed a $1 per bullet tax.

      • Infringing the rights of the law-abiding only encourages criminals. If you want to reduce crime, the most effective method is to train non-criminals to defend themselves since the only ones present at the scene are the criminal and the intended victim. Professional law enforcement personnel invariably show up after the show’s over.

  4. Amen!!!
    We can only hope it stays dead. Those of us in CA have been calling emailing, and sending letters. Calguns has also been pushing hard on this issue as well.

  6. Now, counter-attack.

    That’s the problem with gun rights advocates and groups in general, especially in oppressive states like CA. This is not a “victory” unless you counter-attack and make these tyrants pay for introducing this bill, make them feel the sting of their attempted unconstitutional oppression. Introduce bills to further gun rights, citing this failed bill and its tyrannical backers specifically. Let them know that if they try this crap, they’ll get backlash. Otherwise, gun owners will forever be on the defensive until the final blow slips through.

    • So if it truly dies we need to take on the bullet button itself. Sorry to bullet button manufacturers nothing against you personally.

      • What do you mean? Take on the BB itself? You’re willing to own AR’s or AK’s in only “featureless” configurations?

        I’m assuming if this did pass, we’d still be able to use those goofy ass grip’s/stocks, without flash hiders (featureless builds) and still be ok?

        • Maybe he means attacking the CA laws that dictate we have fixed magazines that make it necessary to equip a bullet button.

    • what we need to do is spank the dems at the national level in november. get congress and the senate and the white house and get national laws that over ride these pissant state rules that are illegal and unconstitutional. we settled the issue of states rights in 1865. no state has the right to violate my rights under the constitution.

  7. This is not yet over, because there are many things that can come up and sneaky moves from Senator Yee between now and Saturday. The Gun Owners of CA has made a premature announcement that they may end up regretting later. I can’t tell you how much I wish this were true, but celebrating a false victory and end up losing later is worse than no victory to begin with.

  8. Sympathetic Noo Yawkuh, here. Help me out. I thought the “bullet button” was already existing law in CA. No? What exactly does this mean in Americano? I can discern no clear meaning from that page of legal diarrhea.

    • In reading the bill, they sought to outlaw magazines that could detach without disassembly of the firearm.

    • Hi Blammo,
      Two major issues with this law.
      1. It outlaws the bullet button.
      2. All current legal owners of AR or AK style sporting rifles would then need to turn them in. If not they would be felons.
      3. Even with that there is no monetary compensation for the confiscation.

      If for some reason it does pass, I am sure there will be blood, one way or another when they show up to take away someones guns.

      • There has been some suggestion that the Appropriations Committee, which is scheduled to hear the bill Thursday, had at least preliminqarily concluded that banning now legal rifles would constitute a taking for which cmpensation would be owed. By a State that has not nearly enough money.

        • That suggestion was made by Yee’ chief of staff, that the bullet buttons could be removed and soldered or welded over. That suggestion was characterized by the various organizations, based on the opinion of gunsmiths, that this would be dangerous. But what do I know….

  9. So no brownie points from the Brady Bunch? This would be even better news if it’s the first step in California’s long road to entering the free world.

  11. Good riddance. This was all about banning scary looking range toys which were also a big F-U to Leland Yee. He didn’t really get it, because the bullet button rifles are perfect in many ways, and he should have instead embraced them:

    They are solid hunting rifles: lightweight (as light as a youth bolt action or lever action), accurate, and not too expensive unless you load em up with useless gadgets…

    They are fantastic target rifles. No piece of paper can withstand the pressure…

    They work just fine for home defense [1]

    But they are totally F@#)@#(* useless for criminals. 10 rounds and slow reloads? WTF?!?? A Big-5 Ruger Mini-14 would be far better for the thugs…

    [1] If you need to reload your 10 round rifle for a home defense situation, you are in the pharmaceutical trade….

    • The fear is that these weapons will be used in Aurora like episodes to wreak havok across the state of California–even though that has never happened here. Seems the gangs prefer AKs. But you are exactly right–they want to ban them because they look scary. Interstingly enough, this bill was on its way down the tubes, amended down to only a ban on the conversion kits to add bullet buttons to noncompliant rifles, until Aurora and the Sihk temple shootings (the latter of which did not even involve an evil black rifle, but that did not stop Yee from relying on it to support the re-introduced ban on all evil rifles).

      • The gangs prefer pistols. There is almost no crime committed with AK’s. There are some crimes committed with semi-auto imitations like WASRs and stuff, but even those are rare. Criminals don’t act like they’re in a Michael Bay movie with rifles and stuff. They have small, concealable weapons, mostly handguns.

    • I hate to say this but Kali is home to more FA-AK’s than a Stalone movie but the Jihadies have them well hidden,,,in Mosques and the “Politicians” know it. Why do you think Pelosie made that illegal trip to Iran in 08?

  12. California will continue to try and pass all sorts of loonie bills until it runs out of ways to pay the salaries of its elected politicians.

  14. While this is a Victory for us Californians, given our Liberal Legislature, the fight is not over just delayed!

  15. This one had me worried.

    I did expect that the SB 249 would be altered or killed because this was one of the most onerous Bills the Dem’s in Sacramento had come up with, especially since the State Attorney General Kamala Harris was co-sponsoring with State Senator Leland Yee (San Francisco…what a surprise!). However, in this State you can never be too confident about what the screwy State Government will do and Governor Brown would likely sign it.

    Knowing several younger people who own the “CA-Comlpliant” AR’s with the bullet button Magazine release, it seemed they were getting along just fine with them and devised various ways to make faster than I would have expected Mag changes. Also, with the CA-compliant AR’s you can have the .223 upper and use a 22LR Kit, as well. Whereas if you own Roberti-Roos registered AR’s you cannot make ANY changes or modifications to them whatsoever, even using the lower with a 22LR Conversion Kit.

    SB 249 has no provision for a Public Awareness Program, so it would put many gun owners in jeopardy of being arrested and prosecuted if they did not surrender their newly “outlawed” arms (or sell them Out of State) because they didn’t understand the law correctly.

    This Bill had all the trappings of something you’d expect to have seen in NAZI Germany in the 1930’s. I am not celebrating yet, but am glad to hear it has had its momentum stalled.

  16. Good news (maybe) for those who are still political prisoners of the People’s Republic of California. I escaped 9 years ago, and have been thankful ever since.

    When I drove across the Snake River bridge from Oregon into Idaho (with all my guns in the back of the truck), I started singing “free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, free at last…”

    My only disappointment in Idaho is that our legislature is only 81% Republican/libertarian. Wyoming hit 85% in 2010 – we are hoping to get to at least 95% this election cycle. We do not want the Left to have any voice whatsoever in the running of Idaho, and we would really like to encourage the few remaining “progressives” to move to the PRCa, where they will be very happy. If you do not like a right-wing, conservative society, do not move to Idaho. You won’t like it here, and we get real tired of your whining.

    Yes, that is quite intolerant. Sort of like the legislatures in California, Illinois, NY and other People’s Republics, which are intolerant of any conservative thought.

  17. Quick update. As far as we can tell this is still on docket for Thursday. Yes the staffers stated that they will let it die on the floor, but this might also be because of the thousands of calls being received and their email overflowing from folks like you and me telling them NO!!!!
    Keep emailing and writing and calling until Saturday.
    Better to be safe than sorry.

  18. Although it looks like SB-249 has died in the appropriations committee, if you go to the Appropriation Committee’s calendar for tomorrow, SB-249 is still listed, so until it is taken down or there is word otherwise, expect that this item is still up for discussion.

  19. While we’re on the subject, could we call our legislators and ask them to ram through a bill that gets rid of the “evil features” clause? I just want a normal mag release >_<

  20. Wait, Gun Owners of CA was leading this? Weird, I never heard of em….but what do I know, lol.

    Tons of thanks to Brandon Combs of Cal-FFL and the Calguns Foundation for spearheading this campaign, and to the 160+ volunteers and local hubs who busted their butts taking flyers and talking to FFLs and ranges all over the state. You guys ROCK.

    –Aaron Bailey

  21. Yee has conceded defeat, but vows to keep on fighting. Appropriations decided that this bill “needed more discussion” before it was ramrodded through the legislature. Yee has still to figure out/concede that AR/AK variant rifles–in fact any rifle–is used with any great regularity in the commision of crime (almost never) or murder (not quite almost never but damn close). But of course, such an admission would undermine his policy that these are weapons no one needs and no one should have because they are black and evil. And have lots of bullets (except in California). He will never learn.

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