BOE Member Michelle Steel
Governor Jerry Brown recently signed legislation that makes California’s gun laws – already the most restrictive and confusing in the nation – even more restrictive and more confusing.
Assembly Bill 1964, according to the Sacramento Bee, “is designed to limit the exemption for single-shot pistols from the state’s unsafe handgun roster, excluding semiautomatic pistols altered to not fire in semiautomatic mode.”
This new law, which doesn’t even make sense unless you are versed in the Newspeak of California bureaucracy, will further limit the types of semiautomatic pistols that Californians who are not public safety officers are allowed to buy.
Our state severely restricts the types of semiautomatic pistols that can be sold to the general law-abiding public. Californians in general can only purchase pistols that are approved and listed on the state’s “not unsafe” handgun roster. This bars Californians from buying hundreds of different types of handguns that are readily available to the citizens of almost every other U.S. State.
Often the types of guns that are included in the “unsafe” or “not unsafe” list are made by the same manufacturers and are nearly identical in appearance, features, and functionality. They are all rigorously tested by the manufacturer to approved federal standards. Yet for whatever reason, California policymakers get to decide for all of us which of these weapons are “unsafe” or “not unsafe.”
The Orwellian distinction between an “unsafe” or “not unsafe” handgun may be very important to a government lawyer or lobbyist, and it will certainly affect any one of us who try to legally purchase a firearm for our own protection. But it makes no difference to a gang leader, drug dealer, or street thug who will find, buy or steal, and use any weapon he or she can find to commit crimes in our communities.
Many Californians wish to purchase a handgun to protect themselves from those who have no interest whether a gun is safe, unsafe, or “not unsafe.” And we have a right to do so.
The Second Amendment gives each of us a right to keep and bear arms. This standard has been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. I believe that states, counties, and local governments are required to preserve that constitutional right, and that this right applies not only to keeping a firearm in your home, but includes the right to carry a firearm for your own protection. Recent court rulings agree.
A three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of appeals recently ruled that San Diego County could not restrict the “good cause” condition under which a San Diego resident is eligible for a concealed carry permit. The ruling effectively required the county to change from a “may issue” standard that allows the county to restrict which law-abiding citizens receive a permit to a “shall issue” standard that requires the county sheriff to issue permits to those who are legally eiligible to obtain one.
I agree, and I believe that concealed carry permits should be issued to all eligible Californians of good character who want or feel that they need that permit.
I support Sheriff Sandra Hutchen’s decision to quickly implement “shall issue” standards in Orange County as was required in San Diego by the recent court ruling.
All Americans have a right, as long as they have not lost it because of a criminal conviction or court decision, to safely carry arms for their own protection.
Michelle Steel serves as Orange County’s taxpayer advocate on the State Board of Equalization. She is a candidate for Orange County Supervisor.