California’s DOJ Clamps Down Even More on Second Amendment Rights
By Donn Marten
The state of California continues its radical battle against mainstream America, traditional values, and the constitutional rights of its own citizens with yet another blow against the Second Amendment.
This week, the California Department of Justice issued a statement on proposed regulations that would require home-built firearms, also known as “ghost guns,” to have serial numbers and be subject to state tracking as are other firearms.
The already onerous anti-Second Amendment laws in the Golden State have driven many to purchase firearms kits and assemble guns from parts that are not subject to what can only be described as draconian restrictions in line with liberal ideology to disarm the populace.
The National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action put out the following alert this week, “California DOJ Proposes Regulations Regarding Home-Built Firearm Serialization Requirements”:
On Wednesday, January 31, the California Department of Justice (DOJ) officially posted notice to their proposed regulations regarding the serialization of home-built firearms. The proposal is a result of the recently enacted changes to California law pursuant to Assembly Bill No. 857 (the so-called “ghost gun” bill), adopted in 2016 as part of the other “Gunmageddon” bills.
The NRA and CRPA attorneys are currently reviewing the proposal, and will soon prepare and submit a comprehensive comment letter. In the meantime, a public hearing on the proposal has been scheduled on March 19, 2018, from 10 AM to 12 PM in the Resources Building Auditorium, located at 1416 9th Street, Sacramento, California. We encourage all of our members who are able to attend to voice their opinion on these regulations.
The move to monitor and control gun kits was triggered by another one of the isolated incidents that liberals and gun grabbers typically seize upon to make the case for keeping guns out of the hands of law-abiding citizens, as well as keeping them under the thumb of the government.
The “ghost gun” hysteria was given a boost after a mentally troubled individual went on a November 2017 rampage using homebuilt firearms.
Build-it-yourself “ghost guns,” like the ones used in the recent #TehamaCounty rampage, bypass California’s tough laws. https://t.co/dwLSfW3LnJ pic.twitter.com/QNt5WTNIFJ
— San Francisco Chronicle (@sfchronicle) November 20, 2017
Via the San Francisco Chronicle, “Build-it-yourself ‘ghost guns’ bypass California’s tough laws”:
The man who shot five people to death on a rampage through a small town in the northern Central Valley couldn’t buy guns legally. But by building his own untraceable weapons, he was able to amass an illegal arsenal.
Kevin Janson Neal used at least two homebuilt semiautomatic rifles to massacre his wife and four other residents of Rancho Tehama Reserve in Tehama County, authorities who seized the weapons said.
Such “ghost guns” are slipping through a loophole in California’s tough firearms laws, according to gun control proponents. One manufacturer of the technology that makes such weapons easy to build says the state’s tough-on-guns stance has created a demand for workarounds that is making him rich.
Anyone buying a gun in California must undergo a background check, and semiautomatic rifles are highly regulated under the state’s assault weapons ban. But state law does not regulate firearms kits and individual parts as strictly. So with only rudimentary mechanical skills and a few tools, amateur gunsmiths can build their own firearms — and get away with not registering them and leaving off serial numbers that would make them traceable.
“Homemade firearms are going to be a bigger problem in the future as the popularity of these do-it-yourself kits increases,” said Ari Freilich, an attorney with the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence in San Francisco. “Criminals that would not pass a background check are attracted to this source of weaponry.”
The Neal shootings are yet another example of the Rahm Emanuel maxim of never letting a good crisis “go to waste.” Democrats and liberals constantly exploit the dead in such tragedies before the bodies are even cold in order to advance their anti-gun agendas.
Despite the NRA and other pro-Second Amendment organizations and citizens who are legitimately concerned about being deprived of their right to bear arms, it is going to be a tough rock to roll in a state where the government is controlled by radical leftists.