Yesterday Assemblyman Mike Feuer was the floor jockey for Jack Scott’s SB 1171. SB 1171 prohibits carrying a loaded firearm in a vehicle in unincorporated parts of California.
Several GOP Assemblyman (Keene, Benoit, Anderson, Berryhill and others) pointed out flaws in applying a city rule to very rural parts of California.
At the end of debate Mike Feuer complained about speakers talking about the lack of news stories about people driving around with loaded guns robbing banks, committing crimes in rural areas.
Mike Feuer than cited two cases of deputies, one from Yolo, the other Sacramento killed in the line of duty. Somehow this law would have protected them.
The truth is a little different. The Yolo County Sheriff was killed by a law-abiding citizen that was on parole for assault with a deadly weapon. I’m sure this new law would have factored into his thinking.
The Sacramento Sheriff pulled at 3:30 a.m. and was killed after a struggle with HIS OWN gun. The still haven’t caught the person responsible.
How would this law have saved them?
August 14th, 2008 at 12:00 am
Understand that Scott’s desired law has nothing to do with safety.
It’s designed as an irritant to “the gun culture” – and risks extending from self-defense firearms to hunting firearms (an unannounced side-effect Feuer & crew would welcome)
Obviously the Yolo & Sacto deputies’ deaths have nothing to do with any necessity for the law. No armed criminal checks the law books
before engaging in crime; no DA prosecutes on (except perhaps for initial ‘stack-on’ charging) such a trivial (proposed) crime when far greater charges (murder, assault heavyweight drugs, etc) are a slam dunk. Thus the end result is another law whose end result is enhasslement of regular gun owners.
Oh – understand also that Feuer is the Brady campaign’s water carrier.
Perhaps Scott has tired of his own bill and he’s let a freshman do leg work…
Bill Wiese
San Jose, CA