The announcement below came across my electronic transom last night: a Facebook post from San Diego businessman Barry Bahraini, one of the main organizers working to get a referendum on the California ballot to strike down six gun control laws recently signed by Gov. Jerry Brown. The initiative failed to garner the 365k registered voters’ signatures required to qualify for the November general election. The gun laws stand.
As a Golden State gun owner and gun rights advocate, I can tell you that Irish Democracy is now the order of the day. Simple non-compliance. What happens next, with Proposition 63 threatening to further degrade and destroy Californians’ gun rights, can’t be predicted. But at some point massive non-compliance will meet targeted law enforcement. The end result won’t be pretty.
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Patriots,
It is with disappointment that I must now report to you it appears we will not obtain the minimum signatures required to get these referenda on the ballot. We had six short weeks to get so many signatures and we all know what an improbable job it was. We still need to finish this job and get the signatures we collected filed so that the state can do their work and count all of them for an official record.
Many citizens stepped up and signed our petitions so their voice can be heard. We need to follow through on our commitment and make sure their voice is heard by filing the petitions to be counted. I am proud that I at least tried to get the referenda through and I hope you feel the same way. I am honored and privileged to have worked with each and every one of you in this effort.
This game we just played was THEIR game. And by “their”, I mean the politicians in Sacramento. They know how insanely short the window is to collect so many signatures on a referendum. And the way they were passed and then of course signed just before the Independence Day holiday were clearly intended to give them a further advantage and secure what amounts to an illegal gun grab from law abiding citizens.
I find it absurd because only law abiding citizens will respect these laws, which of course will result in only criminals retaining these soon to be illegal firearms and their magazines. Don’t get me started about the black market ammo dealers coming to a neighborhood near you!
As many have made crystal clear over these past few weeks, the only reason Sacramento can pass these ridiculous laws is because California is one of a few states that does not have the right to bear arms in its constitution. Even if we had succeeded in this game playing defense, the politicians would likely have passed the same bills all over again and required us to do it all over again.
For what? Just to retain our existing and limited rights? They would be happy if we were kept busy playing defense, a task that results in no net gains.
Frankly, I am tired of playing defense and I know you are too. Let’s let the existing players continue playing defense while we now go on offense. It is time to take back our rights that have been eroded away little by little over so many years through the imposition of downright dumb and dangerous gun laws written by politicians who clearly had no real knowledge on the subject to begin with.
We have started the process to file a new initiative to amend the California Constitution to respect the right to bear arms.
It seems to me fighting defense is really just playing Sacramento’s game – literally by their rules which are setup to make us likely to fail. The right constitutional amendment will respect the rights of law abiding citizens while at the same time keep our community safe by preventing violent felons and the mentally ill from possessing dangerous weapons.
One single amendment and the years of relentless and unreasonable, downright stupid, laws come to an end while at the same time removing their ability to impose new dangerous laws on us. This is the one and only true fix.
Soon, a 30 day period for public review and comment will begin. The proposed amendment may be amended up to five days after the public comment period ends. When circulation actually begins, we will need to secure 585,407 valid signatures over SIX MONTHS to get it on the 2018 ballot.
We are working to make the petition short enough to enable a typical home PC to print it. Similar to the Grey Davis recall, voters should be able to download, print, sign and mail. However, that does not mean we should not be out there actively collecting signatures. Make no mistake – it will be critically important that we do both.
In the meantime, it is imperative – absolutely CRITICAL – that we now turn our attention to defeating Prop 63. We need to make a statement that we are coming and ensure that it not only fails, but fails miserably. That means getting the word out that “Safety for All” is really “Safety for All Criminals”. I frankly will never understand why politicians expect criminals will obey the laws they impose. When guns are the subject of those laws, the result is a very dangerous situation.
Thank you for supporting our referenda effort. I met a lot of good people over the past few weeks. I hope you will continue with us as we move on to defeating Prop 63 and securing gun rights in California. We will be looking to learn from our efforts and what does not kill us makes us stronger. We have lots more experience, so let us put it to use!
Sincerely,
Barry Bahrami
well that sux
I signed the petition. Actually, it’s petitionS. The process was a mess – it required no fewer than six different signatures, plus printed name, plus full address, one for each bill, on separate sheets. It required you to find the correct packet of petitions based on the county in which you lived. It took ~20 minutes to do. This is an unreasonable expectation for a grassroots signature-gathering program.
In contrast, the folks gathering signatures for Newsom’s “Safety for All” initiative required just three pieces of information, one time. They could do this on the street in under 2 minutes.
So a registration scheme.
A side note. Anyone get a postcard from Remington regarding the recall of their 700 triggers? This week to my home address and business address. I’ve never corresponded with Rem or purchased anything from them. No one else in my family received so was not a nationwide broadcast.
So they, apparently, purchased address lists of gun owners. Think the demtards can’t get around prohibitions on fed gov’t lists? Think the DNC hasn’t purchased the same database. A lawsuit to determine the source of Rem database would be interesting. I’d guess consolidation of gun magazine DB.
Sadly, all I ever owned was a Red Ryder and it was lost in a canoe accident on the Nile years ago.
I was going to say the last Remington purchased by the family was a 740 Woodsmaster before I was born, but I suddenly recalled getting a 597 once about 15 years ago, which I’ve long since sold. I’ll be sure to keep an eye out for the recall notice, though.
Tom
A constitutional amendment is a step in the right direction but it in no way guarantees the right to keep and bear arms won’t be attacked legislatively, as evidenced by our federal infringements.
Still, carry on…
^ This! Times eleventy billion.
A piece of paper with words has no magical powers. Just as gun-owners will disregard the new California gunmaggedon laws, so too will the California legislature and Governor disregard any such California state constitutional amendment.
Gun-rights organizations in California should be developing their strategy right now so that they will be ready to respond effectively when, not if, California politicians violate a California constitutional amendment about firearms ownership and possession.
Civil war or jail time would be a step in the right direction. This is a Constitutional issue. These CA legislator yahoos don’t pack the weight individually to deratify the Constitution on their own. It’s my America people. CA is just a large-ish small part of it. You don’t get to screw up my America because you are communistic trash.
CA citizens needing to push this back. They need to put the burden on their legislators to get a referendum together to deratify the Constitution, and secede from the Union. The rest of us will then get a posse together to prosecute that civil war on the lot of you to get our real estate back, and you won’t be allowed back in the clubhouse.
Oh we want to change the Parchment in California do we….Democratic controlled legislature. 14% of the workers are in one form of another are employees of the state. Actively promotes having illegals take residence, gives them driver licenses and registers them as democrats. Now with the $15 per hour looming the sucking sound is business packing up and moving east.
While I love the vertical dirt, best to plan your escape and look towards removing the bullet button.
That’s what they (CA legislators) are attempting to do. Drive out those opposed. Once accomplished they will have their fiefdom, like NY, sChitcago, Boston, Seattle, Miami. . .
It’s like the school issue thing, keep common core, get rid of prayer and the pledge, pass out condoms and satanism materials to drive out the good citizens while keeping the mandatory support, and you have your own little mind-screw educational death camp.
Joe R,
Why all the hate on Miami?
I now live in Fort Lauderdale, but I lived in Coconut Grove and would return there
Even the “black grove” was safe enough that I rode my bike thru it.
The Overtown neighborhood near the Arena is a very bad area and I never go there.
I carry my concealed gun everywhere, but have no special fear of crime and bring my kids ito Key Biscayne, Miami Beach, Coral Gables, Kendall and even the Cuban enclave of Hialeah.
Florida in general and Miami in particular is very gun friendly
Come on down and we can go the outdoor county range called Trail Glades!
Miami is imported (D)eep evil Blue. No redeeming qualities after that. It is, behind Flint, MI, and some Indian reservations, the greatest attempt to make a country within the U.S., and I’m not going to hope any of that ever outlives me.
Why are “good citizens” so afraid of condoms?
Why do pervs and child molesters like to push so hard to provide ways for innocence to be abandoned or destroyed.
Thanks Balaam, now go back to talking to your ass.
We need a 2A in our California Constitution.
We also need jetpacks and midget unicorns, while we’re fantasizing.
What you need is to overthrow the government, but that won’t be happening so go turn in your guns like good little sheeple.
So the federal .gov is going to stand by and await the outcome of a CA only civil war?
Too many of the places to sign were limited to gun stores. That’s the ONLY place I ever saw any.
Since it was six pieces to sign, and each takes a couple of minutes, and people travel from one county to another to go gun shopping, it was a huge bottle neck in terms of getting signatures.
There were lines of people signing, but that means all the people who don’t want to spend a few minutes waiting or signing, thinking, “I’ll sign it next week when I’m here” didn’t actually sign.
People were eager to sign, but even a few minute wait will mean you miss a number of people.
So much for the “silent majority of California gun owners will rise up in protest” myth.
Gosh darn it, if only they’d put the petition out there during the summer T.V. re-runs months, people might have noticed. Once the new, gripping season of “2 Broke Girls” starts, there’s no pulling Californians away to endure the Herculean task of…..signing their name.
Don’t worry, Californians, in the New America, you’ll be free (or not) to leave California and visit Texas, where you’ll have more freedom as a foreign national than you do nowas a U.S. citizen in California.
#Texit
Thank-you. That’s what I’m saying. The California whine is strong. I’ve moved from undesirable places to live. A couple of times. Actions people. Internet “support” is meaningless.
You’re a great example of why there will be no freedom, even in Texas. Our enemy fights at a national, even international level. We POTG are fragmented or worse we actively, as in your case, throw our brother gun owners under the bus.
There will be no civil war, rebellion or secession. People like you are not going to fight for anything beyond their own property line, if that.
There are no Robert E. Lee’s left anymore. Just Jonathan’s-Houston’s.
My buddy in Europe laughed recently while saying,’You didn’t think they were going to let you keep your guns?’..He wasn’t speaking specifically of CA.
Not only will proposition 63 pass in a landslide, In 2017 or 2018, I expect the California legislature to pass outright gun confiscation bills.
You saw it here first!
The only reason they might hold off until 2018 is so that they can ensure that everyone registers their “assault weapons”.
With Massachusetts riding coattails.
Sorry, I didn’t waste my time signing the petition. I try to avoid being David in the David vs Goliath scenario, because despite the biblical reference, “David” usually looses…badly. The climate in this state for gun owners is so bad it was a failed concept from the onset.
1) Had the petition come up with sufficient signatures to get on the ballot, it would have merely failed at the ballot box.
2) Had the massively improbably happened and it had passed, the AG in this state who wants to be president some day, would have subverted its intent and held it up in court until it could be completely thwarted by new emergency legislation using this states oh so very corrupt “gut and replace” system of bill writing.
Sadly, California can only hope for federal governmental assistance to beat back its incompetent and highly corrupt regime.
Or, more likely, it the gunpocolypse will join the large pile of unenforced and unenforceable gun laws that only are noticed or cared about in the Urban centers of the state.
Executive branch; Fail
Legiative branch; Fail
Court system; Fail
Petition for redress; Fail
Popular uprising; Fail
You’re out of options; leave peacefully while your abusers will still let you.
These are the type of article that makes us look disorganized, at best. In a single submission, we have the call to ignore the laws (“Irish Democracy”), and the statement that, “Only law-abiding citizens will obey these laws”.
And we wonder why the anti-gun crowd is so effective.
We need to transition to ‘peaceful’ citizens vs ‘law-abiding.’ It’s more accurate, considering the goal has always been to either make us criminals or disarm us (i.e. enslave us one way or the other). The term is more empathizing, but also carries an implied threat.
As in “peaceful, so far”.
I like that very much. Henceforth, I’m going to use “peaceful” instead of “law-abiding”, and try to convince others to as well.
People who complied with the Fugitive Slave Act were “law-abiding”, but that doesn’t mean they were doing the right thing.
California is, at least in terms of gun rights, lost and has been for some time.
I said weeks ago that I figured all of this was for naught when a protest at the state capitol could only garner 500 attendees in the state that supposedly has the most gun owners in the nation.
Sorry guys and gals the fight is over and freedom lost. There isn’t going to be a victory in round two. It’s time to abandon ship or relax on the deck chairs and go down with her.
I always heard, whilst living in Cali from 1996 to 2012, that the guns owners weren’t going to let weapons, ammo, magazines, right to open carry, etc. be banned. That they were going to rise up. I knew there weren’t enough to make a difference. There’s is no way a 2nd Amendment type law is going to get passed in Cali. My guess is that they are going to double down in the next few years, and you’ll be lucky to own a flintlock.
The slaves are far too comfortable for any of that messiness.
Sssh! Most of them haven’t even figured out that they’re slaves yet.
As long as the peasants have their circuses and bread, a ruling tyrant very rarely loses his head!
I signed the petitions at a well known hunting/fishing store that gets hundreds of customers per day…you know what the petition guy told me? He’d been there a week and only got a couple hundred signatures. Many people are so lazy and apathetic that they’d rather let their rights slip away than take 10 minutes writing their name and address on some papers.
The gun owners of this state had six weeks to sign their name and address six times, BFD.
“…the only reason Sacramento can pass these ridiculous laws is because California is one of a few states that does not have the right to bear arms in its constitution.”
This is incorrect.
Article 3, SEC.1 of the California Constitution:
“The State of California is an inseparable part of the United States of America, and the United States Constitution is the supreme law of the land.”
This, right here, means that all rights/powers protected by the US Constitution also apply to the state of California as all times. That means every single one of the protections afforded by the US Constitution also apply to the people of California including the right of the people to keep and bear arms. Also, any conflict whatsoever with the US Constitution in the state Constitution is instantly invalidated by this same entry. So please don’t think, even for one second, that the California Constitution does not protect against the right of the people to keep and bear arms.
Also, the 10th amendment to the US Constitution does not allow states to violate 2nd amendment rights because it has already been prohibited by the Constitution from doing so.
This, of course, doesn’t mean that they are going stop trying to take our rights, it just means that the State of California is violating it own laws and Constitution to do so. Nothing new for California.
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