State Ballot Measures Temper Trump Victory For Gun Owners
BY Herschel Smith
8 years ago
The other thing we saw Tuesday is that Astroturf-funded state measures are the wave of the near future. The formula: Pick a “blue” state; throw in a ton of money from New York City and Silicon Valley; hire the best propagandists money can buy; rely on media allies to amplify the signal and demonize gun owners; spook the useful idiot herd; and steamroll over grassroots volunteers who enjoy neither the money, the media savvy, the contacts nor the reach.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
That’s what happened in California. Proposition 63 passed:
The initiative outlaws the possession of ammunition magazines that hold more than 10 rounds, requires background checks for people buying bullets …
I detest that terrible state for what they are doing to gun owners. David rightly points to the need for state and local activism in addition to what we accomplished at the national level.
But I have to admit that I am of two minds on this and I welcome your thoughts on this as well. Lee made significant errors at Gettysburg. He didn’t listen to the counsel of his own generals, he occupied the low ground, he began the battle too late, he shouldn’t have been so far from home to begin with, and he used antiquated tactics, techniques and procedures to prosecute the battle. He should have moved his forces in the middle of the night in order to prevent hardened formations from developing and attacked at or even before dawn. Instead, he marched his forces into a killing field after two thirds of the day was gone.
We have to be thinking men and women. I don’t want to give the gun controllers one inch, and I know the NRA has taken up this case for California. But at some point we have to recognize the need to retreat, reform, and ensconce in a free state. Why do gun owners still live in California?
Is California worth saving? I’m asking the readers. Is it worth spending effort on that place?
On November 10, 2016 at 11:58 pm, RustyGunner said:
This is where we wind up on the forked stick of federalism. The states are supposed to be laboratories of democracy, able to forge their own solutions. Gun owners there have a choice to make, but it’s their choice. Me, I’m opening an ammo shop at the state line.
On November 17, 2016 at 7:57 am, D said:
Then the Kalifornien Stadtpolizei will send some goons to take fotografien of your customers.
Open the gunstore on the second floor of a building that has a cousuling center for any and all LGBTXYZ bipeds. “The Nancy Pelosi Outreach (Left of) Center” would be a good name for the center. Maybe “The Nancy Pelosi Reacharound Center” would be better. A good name for the second floor store would be “Remember the Victims of Muslim Terrosism in San Bernadino”.
The presence of the center would dissuade the Stadtpolizei from spying, since they would not want to antagonize any turd smuggling undocumented Other Than Mexicans, et al.
If she talks about the store you get free advertising and also reminds the sheeple of what happens when you don’t vet muslim immigrants.
On November 11, 2016 at 12:31 am, Blake said:
I live in CA in the Central Valley. We are flyover country for the rest of California.
The Central Valley is pretty conservative but, San Francisco and LA pretty much run the state. You can guess how much weight the Central Valley carries with legislature. Gavin Newsome will be the next governor of CA and he’s a far let wing loon, to the point of making Jerry Brown look like the epitome of wise leadership.
My wife and I are out of here first chance we get. Heading to AZ, if God so wills.
On November 11, 2016 at 4:51 pm, Ned Weatherby said:
My brother and his wife would, if he could. It’s not easy for someone to give up their job, sell their house and move.
On November 11, 2016 at 7:35 am, Publicola said:
If the NRA is on the case in cali then I’d be tempted to give it up as lost.
This is all too complex for a comment, so pardon me for over simplifying a bit; the progressive culture (not synonymous but related to the progressive ideology) is predominant in the southern 3rd of cali & the western 3rd of the rest of the state. Their top down, collectivist worldview is what controls the politics over the entire state, despite their being lots of folks who don’t buy into that poisoned perspective in the central & northern parts of the state.
Same can be said of Illinois, with the Chicago area being the epicenter of progressivism. Florida from about Tampa down to the keys is the same, and in most large to largish-medium cities the progressive culture is pervasive. Toss in Pennsylvania to Massachusetts & the western 1/6th of Washington state & Oregon (at least in the larger metro areas there) & you have a good idea of their area of influence.
In those places the best approach is to counter the progressive culture with (more or less) the Scots-Irish culture, which is a bottom up individualistic proposition (the gun culture as we know it today originated from it & in some instances can be considered synonymous with it). That takes time & effort though.
Next best (to show how perilous the situation is) would be the courts. Heller was flawed in many ways, but if Scotus could stop the circuits rebelling agin Heller & McDonald then a lot of what Bloomie the Hut is trying to do with the ballot would be nullified.
Part of that would be actually arguing in court that there’s a Right to own & carry weapons, not a mere privilege as has been done so often. Fighting against all background checks (not just “universal” background checks) & licensing & permit systems – in other words, all prior restraint based laws concerning weapons – & convincing the courts that the federal constitution doesn’t allow “reasonable” regulation of a fundamental human Right even by local governments is about the only way to save places like cali & Illinois & Florida & Texas & NC. & Colorado, lest I forget my own troubled residence.
An alleged pro-gunowner congress & white house may make some progress, but I’ve seen them at work before & I’m not holding my breath that they’d do anything other than throw a bone to some gunowners while not really diluting their power to legislate as they want on guns.
I think abandoning cali & spending resources to push for a nationwide solution would be a better idea. It’s not practical though, as the NRA & NSSF & SAF & most others you’d want to lead the charge are too committed to protecting some sort of privilege (or even have gone down the path of appeasement) to give serious thought or effort to demanding our Rights be respected.
Given all the above, the few folks I know in cali I urge to flee. I keep telling them America is just right next door to them :) Most won’t or can’t leave, so I wouldn’t leave them unsupported unless there is a serious nationwide effort that needed the resources more urgently. Until the NRA (& others) stop compromising or making deals or telling us they saved our Right to arms because we can beg for a permit after paying a modest tax for it, then I don’t see why we shouldn’t give what support we can spare to those stuck behind the lines.
On November 14, 2016 at 4:23 pm, Frank_in_Spokane said:
Re. your first paragraph:
http://www.geocurrents.info/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/6CaliforniasPolitical-Map.png
We visited SoCal several times over the years that we lived in Phoenix. Used to complain about all the libs that fled CA and dragged their lib worldview and politics with them to AZ.
We moved to Spokane WA 8 years ago. Then a few years ago, we attended a MC rally in Fortuna, Jefferson. Talk didn’t have much time to mix with the locals, but talk about a different feel.
(Kinda like to see WA state divvied in two, through the Cascades … )
On November 11, 2016 at 9:46 am, Fred said:
It’s the second hardest lesson I’ve learned in life. The first being; when Jesus said follow me, in the case of the called, he ain’t asking. The second hardest lesson I’ve learned is don’t go where you aren’t wanted. I’m 100% for like minds and souls gathering in a geography. I even consider it biblical.
Half the country wants to see you onto railroad cars. Don’t get caught behind enemy lines. Violent left, revolutions happen fast. You need to be with friends.
On November 11, 2016 at 11:10 am, silver cowboy said:
California, a state that shows us why the electoral college is a requirement as San Fran and the LA basin control the state. The problem with “letting it go” so to speak is that once people live under that rule of law they accept it as “normal” and when they move elsewhere they attempt to bring their “normal” with them (See Colorado and Oregon). So we must “assist” those in California to prevent that mindset from being the new normal everywhere.
On November 11, 2016 at 11:31 am, Stones said:
As someone who is 50 days out from leaving NJ, I know the answer to the question posed to Californians. It’s Its a resounding NO!
Leave while they will still let you!
On November 11, 2016 at 2:28 pm, D Dub said:
Assuming Trump does what he says he going to do and the supreme court becomes solidly originalist with the changing out of Kennedy and potentially Ginsberg and Breyer and the filling of Scalia’s seat with an originalist, then states like California serve a purpose. They create laws that must be adjudicated by the courts which gives the supreme court a chance to firmly develop the case law around an orginalist interpretation of the 2nd Amendment. This is no guarantee that the 2nd will be protected forever but it does add some level of protection. As a resident of NY we wait eagerly for the SAFE Act to be overturned. If it never does then we’ll head out for a more free state.
On November 11, 2016 at 3:17 pm, UNCLEELMO said:
The people passing these laws know many of them are unconstitutional. Moonbeam’s reply when reminded of that fact is “So sue me”.
Many of these laws could very well be overturned by a conservative Supreme Court, but that takes money. Both GOA and Gun Owners of California do what they can, but they both run on a shoestring.
I hope Second Amendment advocates don’t give up on California. We need all the help we can get.
On November 11, 2016 at 3:07 pm, UNCLEELMO said:
“Why do gun owners still live in California?”
My answer to that question is a ranch that’s in it’s fifth generation of family ownership. It was first purchased four years after California achieved statehood. 162 years of family history is not something that can be given up easily, for any reason.
It’s important to keep fighting for what you believe in, no matter where you’re at or how impossible the odds look.
On November 11, 2016 at 3:27 pm, Ned Weatherby said:
Yep, Uncle – and what happens in CA follows elsewhere. I have family that lives there – it’s not easy just to expect people to leave. And some of the staunchest, most active pro-rights advocates I know live there. I lived in CA for 10 years. Not willing to write it off.
On November 12, 2016 at 8:27 am, Haywood Jablome said:
“Is California worth saving? I’m asking the readers. Is it worth spending effort on that place?”
No, and No.
On November 12, 2016 at 9:59 pm, NVGuy said:
I’m not certain that it’s worth saving (I live on the East coast, so it’s not my immediate problem), but I think we should at least consider delaying tactics. Far too many ideas hatched in Cali wind up traveling eastward, so we should, I think, fight to keep those ideas penned up as much as possible.
On November 14, 2016 at 4:18 pm, Frank_in_Spokane said:
Well, you could always divvy the place up according to political leanings: http://www.geocurrents.info/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/6CaliforniasPolitical-Map.png