[Fcalerts e-Update] Attention California: Help Stop S.B. 249‏

Email from The Firearms Coalition:

Our friend Jim Shults (Shults Media Relations, LLC) has forwarded a note calling attention to S.B. 249.  Yes, we checked, and yes, it's bad.  The bill would essentially outlaw any gun with a removable box magazine and do away with the "bullet button" workaround that California activists were able to enact a couple of years ago.  Not only would S.B. 249 make common guns illegal, it would require a massive gun turn-in.  If the gun turn-in is found legal, it's a violation of the Fifth Amendment as well as the Second.  On the other hand if gun owners were to be compensated for their confiscated property, it would drive the state further into a fiscal crisis.

What to do
Friends unfortunate enough to live in the People's Democratic Republic of California should immediately contact their legislators.  A good source of information is http://calguns.net and its special page, http://stopsb249.org/.  You can also follow their Twitter feed @stopsb249.  If you are outside of California and have friends, there, alert them and let them know how bad this thing is.  

I wonder how many would comply with "a massive gun turn-in"?

I wonder how many will come to regret that they allowed themselves to be talked into signing up, and the ones who showed defiance were the resented minority?

UPDATE:

California State Senator Leland Yee's horrible SB 249, which would have essentially banned possession of thousands, if not millions of common semi-automatic firearms in California, has been removed from the Assembly Appropriations Committee hearing calendar.  The bill is dead for this year.  Great work, Calguns.net, Gun Owners California, NRA, and other California activists.  It's critical that this kind of bill be slapped down quickly and firmly.  As we all know, every bad idea that comes out of California eventually spreads across the rest of the country.  One great piece of news coming out of this is that there are several hard up-or-down votes to move the bill along.  Here's hoping that California activists can put a dent in their re-election hopes.

There was some controversy within the gun rights community with Gun Owners California reporting as early as Tuesday afternoon that the bill was dead.  Calguns and other groups tweeted that the news was being reported prematurely and that activists should keep the pressure on.  We'll refrain from taking sides in a local dispute, but will point out that there is no downside that we can see with the California state senate phone lines being tied up for a few hours longer.  Better the dogs bark too long than be called off too early. 

Altogether a good day's work for the state of California, and the nation!  Thanks to everyone!

Chris Knox
http://www.firearmscoalition.org/