EXPOSE OF A DISMAL RECORD OF SUPPORTING THE NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION’S POSITION ON GUN LEGISLATION CALLED UNETHICAL” BY BROWN’S AG OPPONENT

1) So called "assault weapons" are NOT "machine-gun-like," as Mr. Cavala claims. The are semi-automatic, meaning they shoot a single bullet per pull of the trigger. Machine-guns and other automatic weapons can shoot dozens, even hundreds, of bullets per pull. They have been strictly regulated at the FEDERAL level since the 1930s (yes, about 70 years).

2) There is no attempt to "allow anyone to carry concealed, loaded weapons," Rather there is an attempt to bring California law into line with that of the majority (37) of states. The shall issue concealed carry laws now effective those 37 states require the state to issue a concealed carry permit unless the person is disqualified for certain, specified reasons (like previous violent felonies, adjudication for mental illness, etc.). Such systems involve both background checks and typically mandatory training. The attemps to change California law aim to align it with the majorty of states, not to create some wild system where anyone gets to carry.

Poochigian's authorship of AB 675 The Corporate Criminal Protection Act disqualifies him from being the state's top public safety officer. Also the Sierra Club said yesterday that "Poochigian’s Voting Record Makes Him Unfit for AG Job" Then there's this: www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcWo-7wGt5s

Why would the top cop want to allow .50 cal bullets on the street?

"Why would the top cop want to allow .50 cal bullets on the street?"

Perhaps because no .50 caliber weapon has ever, in California or the rest of the US, been fired in a violent crime?

Besides, it's the law that .50 caliber weapos are now 'assault weapons'; whoever is elected, the AG takes an oath to enforce the law. Either candidate would do that; Poochigian would just do it better.

If Poochigian is the lapdog of the NRA, then this Cavala joker is the lapdog of the American Communist Party.

I'm a Californian, and I own a .50 BMG firearm!!!

Only because the insane anti-american gun-hating liberals had to ban it. I HATE the fact that they have to lie and lie and lie about it's capabilities until every soccer mom thinks that one round from this horrid gun can kill 100 people 5 miles away, or some other nonscence.

THE RIGHT OF THE PEOPLE TO KEEP AND BEAR ARMS SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED.

Anybody that supports any gun ban, at all, is only disarming regular citizens. The criminals and terrorists are still going to do bad things with illegal weapons. Disarming Americans while violating thier rights only makes the job of evil men easier. It's AIDING the criminals! It's also a violation of the U.S. Constitution, and is TREASON as far as I am concerned.

I am a Californian gun owner and I enjoy my 2nd Ammendment rights. I think it is outrageous that this guy says that being an ally to the NRA is anti-law enforcement!!! The job of police is to make it safe for us to raise our families where we live. There will always be a criminal element, so why take away my right to protect my family until the police come to cart the scumbag away???? Are you willing to bet your life that the police can respond quickly enough to rescue you? Studies have shown firearms are used over 2 million times a year for personal protection, and that the presence alone wards off the would be attacker without firing a single shot. We need to educate people about the safe and responsible use of firearms, not ban them from the ones who can legally use them to protect their families. In my oppinion more responsible, qualified, good citizens of California who are armed the less crime there would be. Think about it, would you break into a house if you thought the owner had a .45 pistol waiting for you inside? I sure wouldn't want to, and I am a Iraqi War Veteran!! So I say please educate yourselves before you Vote this November 7th 2006, and if you think you are anti-gun take a firearms training course and see for yourself if you really hate guns.

It's rather laughable the Demos are touting their supposed antigun credentials.

AG Bill Lockyer helped 50,000 people get assault weapons since Dec. 2005. See, he forgot to update the list of banned guns (make/model) and folks got their new AK47 and AR15 guns without a 99-cent pistol grip, making them legal and compliant because they are not described by the generic description nor are they listed. He (and the Deputy AG) didn't really realize the two sets of laws had to be work with each other for full effect due to the effect of a 2001 court decision. The law had intended an active DOJ/AG role in the field which didn't happen for 5 years. This led to tens of thousands of gunnies building legal "off-list" rifles minus a cheap pistol grip. Many of these 50,000 people appear to have bought multiple such firearms so the likely number likely is in the 100K+ area now.

When line DOJ staff tried to 'fix' the situation before it blew out of control at end of December, they were overridden by his Deputy AG Alison Merrilees. As things blew further outta hand he disowned his own Deputy AG, Alison Merrilees, referring to her in conversation with the redoubtable Irwin Nowick as "a low-level employee" and wishing this whole mess would just go away. He was further irritated at Merrilees because she generated a huge paper trail to hundreds of folks that, for a variety of reasons, will be eminently useful in a variety of future court challenges to CA gun laws.

It got so bad the AG/DOJ had to give up its authority to name ("list") new assault weapons to avoid further embarassment - they got Johan Klehs to gut & amend AB2728, and were indeed so desparate for its passage that, rumor has it, they let NRA interests tear it apart and radically amend it.

Whoever gets into AG office is gonna have a mess to clean up in the gun field regardless of political slant due to a bunch of confusing regulations with major gaps in them, and a Firearms Division staff that's often not technically, nor regulatorily/ legally, competent. (Call them 5 times on one subject and you'll get 3 answers.) Stuff like this causes courts to be flooded for no good reason.

Bill Wiese
San Jose CA

It's interesting how, when a politician or leader supports a right, they are branded as a "lap dog" if there is some powerful and vocal minority that hates that particular right.

I wonder if people would take umbrage at branding Abraham Lincoln the "lap dog" of the then-nascent black civil rights movement, for example.

Yea! Poochigian and the Second Amendment!!!!
Infantry, 11B, CIB. The U.S. Army gave me my first (legal...) weapon.
Caballo is stoopid.

As a professor who recently moved to Cali, I have been disgusted in learning that about half of my firearm collection is "illegal" including my favorite, my Barrett 82A1. OMG, left-coast indeed! I may not stay here long, but meanwhile I find it shocking how many uneducated people with an irrational fear of firearms in the hands of law-abiding citizens tend to mouth off around here. While I used to enjoy honing my skills at long-distance shooting, I cannot do that here, and moreover the entire purpose of the 2nd Amendment was to enable the citizenry to protect itself from the tyranny of its own government. Are you listening Nancy Pelosi?!? Get a clue people. It's NOT that easy to obtain these fine weapons in the first place, and if you take them away from law-abiding individuals then only the crooks and the police will be armed. How frightening is that!?

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