I've been hanging around this website for many years now. For the most part I completely agree with the Netroots' positions on political and social issues. I'm as mad as anyone at the Republicans on a national level, and for the last several election cycles I've voted straight-ticket Democrat because I believed that this was the best thing to do for our nation.
But not anymore. While I'll continue to vote for Dems on national politics (for now), for state and local politics I'm going straight ticket Republican. Make the jump to find out why.
Fuck California Democrats and fuck the horse they rode in on.
Tonight I found out that Microstamping AB 1471 has passed the California Senate. It has already made it past the Assembly once before. It will now return to the assembly where it is expected to fly through to the Governor's desk. I don't know if Governor Schwarzenegger will sign this bill into law, and I don't care. It should never have gotten this far.
Microstamping is a technology that causes a firearm to leave identifying characteristics on brass ejected by semi-automatic firearms. On the face of it, this might seem like a great idea. It allows the gun to essentially stamp it's serial number on ejected brass so that forensic specialists can figure out what gun was used in a crime.
But there's a huge number of problems with this technology. Here's just a few:
- The technology only works for semi-auto firearms that eject spent brass when they're fired. Revolvers, of course, don't eject their brass so there's nothing left to find.
- The microstamping technology can easily be defeated by a semi-knowledgeable person with a little time and a Dremel. Basically, it's trivial to file these marks away. What's more, a gun's firing pin is one of the more common things to replace, since firing pins can and do break. So now, somehow, gun owners must purchase a firing pin with the exact right markers on it. I'm sure THAT won't be too expensive or anything.
- Millions of gun owners in California shoot at public ranges. Not everyone picks up their brass, and even those who do, there's always some that you miss. It is a forgone conclusion that criminals will figure out that picking up brass at public ranges and then "salting" crime scenes with this brass will introduce massive amounts of reasonable doubt into the technology.
In other words, go shooting at a public range, and don't be too overly shocked should the police come knocking at your door about a crime that was committed in a place that you've never been. Don't have a viable alibi? Too bad. Now you're a suspect in a crime. Oh, and you can bet they'll use it as an excuse to confiscate your firearm too.
- In order to see the microstamped features on the brass, expense scanning equipment is required. Forensic specialists will have to be trained to look for this information. And it will take time to examine the brass. Time and money is hardly something that forensic labs have in abundance; all for what will probably be a wild goose chase.
- Even if the microstamping information is not tampered with on the firearm, the only thing it can do is tell the authorities who originally purchased the firearm. Most criminal usage of a firearm is committed with a firearm obtained illegally: either stolen or obtained through some kind of a straw purchase or smuggled illegally into the state. So the technology won't tie the gun to the criminal. Indeed, it can only tie the gun to the original purchaser. The creators of this technology even admit as much, but they say it's worthwhile so as to catch straw purchasers. But you just know straw purchasers are going to avail themselves of Dremels so as to not get caught.
At the end of the day, this technology is just about one thing: harassing law abiding California gun owners.
Indeed, AB 1471 makes it illegal to sell a firearm in the state of California if it doesn't have this microstamping feature.
But adding this technology to a manufacturing process is not cheap. Special lasers have to be purchased so as to engrave the firing pin and the ejection mechanism. And firearm manufacturers must then make sure that the right firing pin and the right ejection mechanism is installed into the correct gun -- hardly an inexpensive proposition when it comes to mass-produced products like a firearm.
Since the State of California is the only place in the world that will require microstamping, the expected result is that firearm manufacturers will simply abandon the California market. In other words, AB 1471 is a sneaky, evil and underhanded ban on handguns.
You know, a few months ago I told a friend of mine that I was getting sick and tired of the Dem's continued assault on gun owners. "Oh no," she told me. "I spoke to some of the political leadership, and they say that no one is going to go near gun control anymore."
Well that might be true on a national level, but it sure as shit isn't true at a state level. In fact, the word I've gotten is that state officials don't care about gun owners and are willing to do whatever the hell they can think of to harass us.
Enough is enough. I vote Dem in state-wide elections, and in return they smack me around as hard as they can on my gun rights. Screw it. I will never vote for another California Dem until they stop assaulting my firearm rights. I won't send them money. I won't make phone calls for them. I won't write letters in their support. I won't even put up a friggin' lawn sign to help these jack asses.
I'm done with California Dems. Stop assaulting my 2nd amendment rights, or I might just take my politics to a national level too, no matter what that means for the country.
Is that clear enough for all you gun grabbers out there?
Maybe it's time for the netroots to figure out that the keeping and bearing of arms really is a civil liberty and that the netroots should start getting that message across to liberal politicians if they want to get anywhere in the long term in this country.
Just because Democrats made huge advances in 2006, that doesn't mean they've got a lock for the next generation. People like me have held our noses and voted for Dems ever since Bush came along. Now we're being punished for it.
Enough is as they say enough.
No more votes for California Democrats. And all you California gun-owning Democrats out there better be thinking the same thing if you want to hang on to your right to keep and bear arms.