The One

With almost no debate, the council voted 6-1 to pass Councilman Zack Scrivner's resolution encouraging the U.S. Supreme Court to rule that the Second Amendment provides an individual right to bear arms, and that no government should be able to infringe on that right.

...The sole dissent came from Councilwoman Sue Benham, who said the resolution was just another attempt by a council member to make a political statement. She said as an elected official, she supports the Second Amendment and the rest of the Constitution.

I remember many years back helping represent the Second Amendment contingent by marching in the US Constitution Day parade in the People's Republic of Santa Monica with other members of the Westside Firearms Association (soon to become the NRA Members Council of Westside Los Angeles), as well as my wife and two young children. Of many insults and obscenities hurled at us by the urban Marxist worthies as we passed, the one I remember most vividly was "Go Back to Bakersfield!"

Yes, Councilwoman Benham, resolutions are political statements, but you're not against all of them--for instance, when other council members wanted to declare that Bakersfield would endorse English and not be a "sanctuary city," you had no problem offering "a competing proposal...to recommend that the federal government enforce its laws."

So don't give us that. You're demonstrably not against resolutions per se. Just the ones you don't support, like the right of the people to keep and bear arms.

Like Tip O'Neill famously said, "All politics is local." The council sets the tone for the community, and what they do or do not endorse sets a leadership example for the voting constituents.

I again recall, a couple years later, a subversive on the Redondo Beach city council proposed a resolution of support for the state of California's proposed new (the Perata "features" version--the Roberti-Roos "model" version being deemed not tyrannical enough) "assault weapons" ban. Showing up in force, speaking request cards filled out and speeches ready, the cowards first moved it to the end of the agenda hoping they'd lose us from attrition, and then decided not to vote on the matter.

So your sole refusal to support the resolution should be noted, Ms. Benham, and Bakersfield gun owners should react accordingly when you run for future office. And hollow protests of support for "the Second Amendment and the rest of the Constitution" notwithstanding (and I can point to any number of politicians who make that claim, right before revealing their big "but"), your true agenda is being just another in a long line of self-aggrandizing democrat operatives ruining the promise of what once was "The Golden State."

As an aside: citizen activists are not doing themselves any favors remaining oblivious to the workings of local government. I recommend having your city government website bookmarked and knowing where to access agendas for upcoming meetings and minutes of past ones, so that you know who to support and who not to, and when organized attendance is required. No, I'm not suggesting becoming a cable TV meeting junkie--this can be monitored and accomplished in about 5 minutes each week, with organized responses limited to an "as needed" basis.

[Via Maureen]