“If you’re a single issue voter, and you just want someone to give you a full capacity assault rifle magazine, God bless you, you can go vote for somebody else. I’m not your guy.” – California GOP gubernatorial primary candidate Neel Kashkari in Tim Donnelly’s gun history marked by controversy, tragedy [at sacbee.com]

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86 COMMENTS

    • Looks like a pretty reasonable sentence. Called it full capacity, i.e. it’s a full magazine, instead of high capacity. Called it an assault rifle instead of assault weapon, and he called it a magazine instead of a clip.

      That being said, I live next door in Arizona, and I’m watching both these gubernatorial races as an interested single issue voter.

      • Anyone who uses the term “assault rifle” without the “so-called” adjunct is not being reasonable, IMO. Unless they are talking about no-foolin’, full-auto military small arms–and who in the actual military talks about “assault rifles”?

        • Assault Rifle is really just a term for military historians. If you are taking fire from an AK, FAL or SKS you just call it a rifle. Also, I tend to dislike anything that isn’t belt fed being called a machine gun. (That includes you RPK)

        • Well, technically the man is right. A 5.56mm STANAG magazine is an assault rifle magazine. It is compatible with (and was designed for) 5.56mm assault rifles like the M16. However, they also feed other firearms, including semi-automatics like the AR-15 and some manual actions (I’ve seen STANAG-feeding bolt-actions and pump-actions).

          No, I wouldn’t call such a magazine an “assault rifle magazine” myself, that’s too narrow a way to put it although it will work in an assault rifle. It’s just a general rifle magazine (well, it also feeds USA “pistols” that are stockless short-barreled rifles).

    • Im sure you have seen em, they are the ones with loaded picatinny rails.. Flashlight, grenade launcher,15 mag holders, bayonet, Espresso machine, Dyson mini vac, and crossbow.

    • This would be a “full capacity assault rifle magazine”. It’s not legally crippled to hold fewer rounds than physics permits, and it fits in the M-16 & M-4 assault rifles.

  3. So, if you take the Constitution at face value, he has warned you that he doesn’t. Words only have the meanings he decides they have.

    • Exactly. He seems to be down on ‘single-issue voters’. What if your single issue is whether the candidate will protect and defend the constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic?

      • Then you’re a fanatic with whom no there’s no point in trying to appease, obviously. 🙂

        Oh, and you need to be monitored more closely by the NSA while we’re at it.

      • I’m a single-issue voter. That issue: minimizing stupidity in our government.

        He will not be getting my vote.

    • While it is nice to hear a rattlesnake shake his tail, I find it more disturbing that this guy has an R next to his name, but then again its crazyfornia.

      • RINO- unfortunately; their only endangered in the wild. They are known for being short sighted, rather stupid, yet very aggressive if startled, and they will charge you and either impale you or trample you to death.

        They are not to be trusted, never turn your back on one, and never turn down a chance to kick one out back into the wild where they are to be left alone away from civilization where they won’t endanger innocent people.

    • Absolutely! Good ol’ Kneel helped give away nearly a trillion dollars of your money to help “stimulate” leftist politicians’ friends and donors (TARP). You could say that he’s in the business of giving away other people’s possessions. Keep complaining and he’ll be happy to give away the rest of your stuff along with what’s left of your freedom. He’s just a giver, I suppose. “For the children”, naturally.

      No consent, no peace.

    • “Give you”, indeed. I’ve got ’em and just want to keep ’em. I ain’t askin’ for nothin’ from nobody.

  7. It is a shame really, Haley and Jindal are both Asian and seem to have genuine appreciation for the right to keep and bear arms. Seems Kashkari just wants Democrat votes with a statement like that. I guess we’ll see how far he gets with that crap in the Republican primary…

    • A Republican cannot win a gubernatorial race in California without Democratic voters. Democrats have a 6 to 4 advantage in raw numbers. but it really doesn’t make any difference. Neither he nor Tom Donnelly will be the next governor; Brown will win (in a predicted landslide of over 60% of the vote). After Brown completes his second term, though, it is anyone’s guess who will rise to the top; it will be a free-for-all getting there.

      Since the governor’s race is an all but foregone conclusion, the real race, the one that concerns gun owners the most, is the race for Attorney General, a Kamala Harris is up for re-election; and if we want to make any head way in protecting our rights, she must be defeated. It was a close race the first time around; let’s vote for a better result this time.

  8. Lets find out where his opponent stands and if he is for the POTG, then FLOOD his campaign with $$$

    • His opponent in the primary is Tim Donnelly. I’ve talked with him, and I like what I see and hear about civil rights and all the rest.

  9. From Gov. Moonbeam, to potentially this guy? Kalifornia truly is the land of fruits and nuts. Here’s a thought, keep the wine country, and give the rest back to Mexico.

    • I actually kind of like the idea of splitting the state into a northern and southern California. After all, it isn’t fair for one state to have that much land, resources, and electoral votes, they should “spread the wealth.” Sarcasm off/ In other news, we should get rid of the electoral college.

      • You could not POSSIBLY be more WRONG. Stop falling into the trap of the idiot libtard progressives.

        Go find some reading material on the electoral college. Once more the founding fathers were/are correct and the demcrap party wrong.

        What we need to do is repeal the 17th Amendment. As above – the libtard progressives with their marxist bilge out to destroy America and the founding fathers were/are correct.

        In both cases the progressives program to destroy the balance of powers.

        • I certainly agree regarding getting rid of the 17th Amendment. Heck, let’s get rid of the 16th (income tax) while we’re at it.

          Not that either of these has the slightest chance of actually being repealed…

        • @ neiowa

          There is nothing “libtard progressive” about my position regarding the electoral college. I am quite certain that I know what the Founding Fathers’ intentions were with the electoral college. The electoral college does not work today the way the Founding Father’s intended it to. There were only 13 states of similar population densities when the electoral college was instituted, not 50 with wildly ranging populations. Did you know that it is mathematically possible to win the electoral college with only 23% of the popular vote? The electoral college is not distributed correctly because it gives a minimum number of votes to each state before it begins distributing votes based on population. Accordingly, that means that you have some states that have more votes per capita than other states. Eliminating the electoral college would get rid of the battle ground states and actual make every person’s vote count. If you are conservative and live in California your vote doesn’t matter. Likewise, if you live in Texas and are a liberal, your presidential vote isn’t going to matter. The electoral college is making rural America less and less relevant because the candidates focus all their attention on the “battle ground states.” The election is basically won and lost each cycle based on how a handful of states lean. That is not working. What we need to do is turn to the Alternative Vote. This would actually give third party candidates a better shot and it would prevent the least desirable candidate from winning. If the Alternative Vote had been instituted in Virginia, Terry McAuliffe would not have won the Governor’s race. If you are unfamiliar with the Alternative Vote, go do some research. Also, before you accuse me of not being able to think for myself, go read this article here that I wrote and submitted to TTAG.

          I also believe the 17th amendment should be repealed. The 16th is trickier, but I have a lot of ideas in that regard as well.

        • Another fox-watcher foaming at the mouth who thinks anything that doesn’t agree with his philosophy must be ‘libtarded’.

          Not everything and everyone is about the Democrat vs. Republican false choice crap.

        • @Hannibal Pretty sad to see how far the US vs Them mentality has permeated everything, TTAG included. This is the basic result of the two party system, all the two biggest kids on the block can agree on, is that they’d like to keep making money and dont like term limits.

  12. A few quotes from the article:

    http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2014/02/gun-owner-kashkari-says-hes-not-running-on-second-amendment-agenda.html

    “I do know philosophically that I deeply believe in protecting my own gun rights, and that means protecting your gun rights,” Kashkari said. “But I also believe that, you know, we need to be reasonable about things.”

    …

    Kashkari also said, “I’m not fearful of the Army coming and marching on my home, so I don’t have guns to try to defend myself against the Army. I have guns for my own sport, for my own personal protection, etcetera.”

    …

    When a student suggested the purpose of the Second Amendment is to ensure citizens can overthrow a tyrannical government, if necessary, Kashkari said, “I understand that, and I hear you on that, but if the Army decides to come in with an M1 tank, good luck.”

    • Well. If had used “reasonable” in the sense of “pick your battles” I could maybe have agreed with him.

      His other quotes indicate that’s not what “reasonable” means coming out of his mouth.

      • His definition of “reasonable” seems to be in line with that of your typical Fudd:

        “As long as the guns you want to ban aren’t the ones I’m interested in owning, that’s A-OK with me!”

    • As was said before, Afghanistan has had no problems repelling tanks, planes and foreign armies with small arms the last oh, 150 years or so.

      • Ummm… You should brush up on your history. Where do you think the Mujahideen got their stinger missiles from? Afghanistan in the 80’s was just a proxy war between the US and USSR; just like Vietnam.

    • Exactly so. This is California we’re speaking of…the majority of the voters there want civilian disarmament and would happily repeal the 2nd Amendment.

  16. Heh. Single issue voter here…. the first question I always ask someone who wants my vote is where they stand on the Second Amendment. If they reply with something like “I support the Second Amendment, but…..”, then they get the door slammed in their face as soon as the word “but” passed their lips.

    • I’m something of a single issue voter myself when it comes to gun rights; if a candidate doesn’t support the 2nd Amendment, I will not vote them.

      If they do support the 2nd Amendment, I will probably vote for them…depending on their other stances.

  17. The actual statement itself is not that horrible of a statement, though given I don’t know who this guy really is, I have no context. But what it made me think of is that single issue voters, and especially those focusing on guns, are making guns out to be the be all and end all of problems in terms of politics or government. Yes I agree the government does severely infringe on the right to carry arms, but are you going to ignore every single other issue that is infringing on your liberty and overstepping your constitution?

    • The problem is that a constitutional provision isn’t supposed to be amended or repealed by a state legislature. The fault lies entirely with the Supreme Court’s history of singling out the 2nd amendment as one for some reason subject to such treatment.

      When I look at the 1st amendment jurisprudence, and note how SCOTUS thought the 1st amendment was so expansive in intent that it allows for hard-core pornography to reach general (and free!) distribution, I laugh. So the founding fathers wouldn’t approve of a standard magazine, but would think pornography to be essential? It really is fairly bizarre, as any parent of a twelve-year-old might attest.

  18. I calculated the other day that you are twice as likely to be killed by a drunk or reckless driver than by a criminal with a gun…

  19. It might be a single issue but it tends to serve as a good litmus test for everything else a politician stands for on the authoritarian-libertarian spectrum. And if a politician can’t even understand that concept, he just doesn’t get my vote. It’s about more than magazine capacity but it’s a good place to start.

    • +1

      Dr. Suzanna Hupp said it better than we can:
      “How a politician stands on the Second Amendment tells you how he or she views you as an individual; as a trustworthy and productive citizen, or as part of an unruly crowd that needs to be lorded over, controlled, supervised, and taken care of.” – Texas State Representative Dr. Suzanna Hupp

  20. They want standard capacity magazines like normal, law abiding citizens in free states have, not LOW CAPACITY magazines approved by clueless liberals scared of finger guns.

  21. Isn’t this the idiot that pushed and run TARP. I think he got his big-money payoff at Bill Gross’s PIMCO.

    Our kids get a $3 Trillion bill and he gets 10’s of millions.

  22. Unlike most Returdicans, at least this one seems honest. Not that I’d ever vote for a statist asshole like that.

  24. Is this guy the next Arnold? I certainly don’t live in Californiastan but hasn’t Jerry Brown been a bit more reasonable lately? I’m NOT a one issue voter but yeah what a libtard to give away his campaign before the primary. Unfortunately it reminds me of Illinois. Dumb & Dumber.

  26. The 2nd amendment protects ALL other freedoms. I largely disagree with republicans on social issues but they are generally for smaller government, freer markets, and most importantly gun rights. With guns anyone can protect their freedom. This is why I am largely a single issue voter. It is, to me, the most important issue.

  28. Please tell me there is another candidate for the GOP. This guy makes Christie and Brown look good. I don’t think Neel would veto any anti gun bills, heck he will probably encourage them just as long as he gets his super special “equal” rights permission slip.

    • Very few people have even heard this guy’s name except on gun blogs, because oh my a random candidate has stated something!

      Actually he is one of the two major candidates. But there is almost no campaigning going on. My parents’ household now has two registered Republicans (my dad, a lifelong “Democrat” who never voted for any of the Dem candidates even when he was young, finally switched) No mailings, no calls, no TV spots.

      Anyhow, Tim Donnelly is the other candidate. My dad actually has heard him, not the other guy. The other guy is so busy trying to appear diverse and gave his first interview to a Spanish speaking network, he has not even made a poor attempt at name recognition among the traditional base. Yes reach out, but you need at least name recognition by your base.

      Donnelly is too extreme in his rhetoric in my mind. It is not that someone that conservative cannot win. Bill Simon, e.g., came close against Gray Davis, and if the CA GOP had not sabotaged itself by getting Arnold, McClintock had a decent shot. But against a strong Dem opponent (Brown) and having fed the media sensationalist stories that can be used to paint you an extremist…yeah good luck. His focus on immigration would have worked well…in 1996 when all counties of California, outside the Bay Area, including Los Angeles, opposed illegal immigration strongly. That has changed.

  29. i like the made up term “full capacity” better than “high capacity.” full capacity at least makes it sound like they know that many mags hold mort than 10.

    • is it possible for a .22LR rifle to be full capacity? Seriously? and if so, where is it – I want one

  30. The problem is that it’s hard to vote for anyone when there’s a lot of issues that are important and everything has to be ‘single issue’ because of the stupid (non-proportional) political system we’ve got set up.

    • That’s absolutely the problem with Representative Democracy today. There are so many issues important to various constituencies. A candidate can battle it out over issues A and B during the campaign, then claim his position on issue C should become law because….he was elected on issues A and B.

      In the 2nd amendment area the problem is different, though. It is that RKBA is a constitutional right. Legislatures have no business restricted the right in its historical extent. The Supreme Court let that happen, perhaps afraid of the median man just as Bloomberg is. The Court can fix that lapse, and I hope it does. It is half way there at the moment.

  31. They are starting to get it. He said full capacity instead of high-capacity.

    I must admit I appreciate his honesty.

  33. I had a chance to talk with Neel and Tim last evening at the CRP in Burlingame CA.
    For those who are following along.
    Tim Donnelly:
    Would want shall issue, and possibly constitutional carry if we could get it.
    Repeal the AWB.
    Toss the gun registry.
    10 day wait, 1 gun per month, gone.
    Neel:
    Take the quote above at face value. Essentially nothing will change.
    The only thing he can say is he is a gun owner, like that should be good enough as a litmus test.

  35. so if you chamber a round and then top off, are you now “over capacity”? Just checking since my glock is more than full

  36. Kashkari should be in prison, not running for elected office, regardless of his party affiliation.

    Here’s a tip for elections, folks: Anyone who has “Goldman Sachs” on their resume’? Yea, don’t vote for them unless you want to be the mark in a game of thimblerigging.

  40. I think the key takeaway from this guys’ statement is the “Give” part.
    He says “Give” like it’s a gift bestowed from on high, whereas what we really want is to be left alone.
    There’s a line from that old show “Stargate SG-1” that sums this up perfectly.
    “If freedom’s being left alone, we have it”.
    If only…
    P.S. As a politician, you don’t have the power to “Give” a tax-payer purchased paperclip from your office, much less human rights. How’s that whole “chop CA into pieces plan going anyway? Let’s pick up the pace on that please.

  41. I dislike this man and if I lived in CA would never vot for him, but thanks for being up-front and honest. Brownie points for not saying “high capacity” or “clip”.

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