Governor Schwarzenegger's Historic Chance to Fight Crime and Gun Trafficking

Sorry, I wouldn't give law enforcement one more tool to do anything. It will not make safer. That is what politicians love to tell us and it's never the truth. It is just one more way to squeeze money out of all of us.

Most guns are not "legally" purchased. Their not that stupid, the guns are stolen and passed through many hands. How is that going to help anything. You may find the guy who purchased it "legally" and thats all.

Do you really think that criminals will not figure out how to alter these firearms. Come on....

So, what are the obvious problems and weaknesses of “microstamping”

1. It only applies to semiautomatic handguns. Revolvers and long guns are not affected by this joke masquerading as legislation;
2. Any stamping process can be quickly defeated with a fingernail file in about thirty seconds;
3. 275 million firearms already reside in the United States that do not employ “microstamping” technology. The thugs can just use one of those;
4. Contrary to the Brady Campaign claims, “microstamping” will not enable law enforcement to quickly identify criminal shooters and arrest them;
5. “Microstamping” will add considerable cost to the manufacture of semi-automatic handguns, cost that will be passed on to law-abiding gun owners, making it even more difficult for working-class people to obtain self-defense weapons. The wealthy and the criminal underclass will not be substantially affected;
6. The prices of non-microstamping handguns will go up as people come to view them as more desirable than microstamping guns;
7. The big losers will be law-abiding gun owners and gun manufacturers trying to comply with Kalifornia’s insane gun regulations;
8. The big winners will be gun prohibitionists who falsely claim to be fighting crime and aiding law enforcement while actually only working to disarm law-abiding citizens who are not responsible for violent crime, but who will be the victim of it if their means of self-defense is denied to them.

There is also the issue of whether microstamping actually works and for how long. Anyone familiar with firearms and shooting knows the tremendous stresses experienced by the working parts of a gun. Rapid wear and the accumulation of powder residue are ever present forces acting upon firearms, and it would seem that these forces would quickly render the microstamping mechanism inoperable. Would the gun then become illegal because “identifying information” has been obliterated? Could a legal gun owner find himself charged with a felony through no fault of his own?

Professor George Krivosta performed detailed testing on the microstamping technology. The Krivosta study showed in actual testing that microstamping technology is deeply flawed.

Will this be as effective as catching criminals with the registered handgun database? (Sarcasm doesn't translate well to blogging... to date, not a single crime has been solved using any handgun registration database.) More pointless legislation being passed because it's easy; not because it's effective.

Stupid laws are not passed by a stupid legislature - they know exactly what they are doing and exacly what they want - to make us unarmed subjects rather than armed citizens. And people like Griffen Dix outright lie to us - he knows better - to further that agenda.

Once again we have legislation that only hurts the manufactures and those who are inclined to obey the law in the first place. Does Mr. Dix and other members of the Brady Campaign realize this? You gotta wonder.
In about ten minutes anybody choosing to subvert these measures will be able to do so. Those who plan on using firearms for criminal purchases will not be deterred in pursuing their lives of preying upon their fellow citizens.
The law would also raise questions as to what constitutes a firearm. Currently only one part of a firearm requires to be marked with a serial number. All other parts can be swapped out for those who wish to change the appearance or function. Suddenly this bill looks like it isn't very well thought out.

Wear and tear on the moving parts of microstamped firearms will eventually impair the ability to read the markings. Would it be the intent of the legislature to go after citizens who possess handguns that eject casings that cannot be correctly identified.

Mr. Dix, is it your intent to eradicate firearms from the hands of the public in the future? It certainly seems that you are advocating death by a thousand cuts.

LAPD Chief Bratton said last year most guns recovered were unregistered. This means they were acquired by illegal means. Every legal handgun acquisition in CA is registered with CA DOJ and BATF, who will assist in legitimate criminal investigations. Every gun acquisition in the US is registered with BATF.

If gun registration information is useless in solving crime, then how will microstamping help? It won't.

How does more law help control people who are indifferent to law? Most gang bangers are already breaking a law by carrying a gun. Suddenly they will carry only microstamping guns?

Microstamping also does nothing to prevent crime. It is only useful, if at all, AFTER the crime. It seems more sensible we do something about preventing crime than useless law like AB1471. Like making CA a "shall issue" state for concealed carry.

Twenty years of history proves "shall issue" reduces crime more than gun bans, direct or indirect. "Progressives" simply cannot deal with the facts of this. This is why in LA County, carry permits are issued based on contributions to Sheriff Baca, and other favors, not to law-abiding people who are at risk. Go look at the geographical distribution of permits. It is elitist and racist.

Real progressives would want to do something about that. Help the poor defend themselves against the predations of criminals, as intended in the Second Amendment. 2A is not about guns, but self-defense. "Liberal" ideologues don't get that, except when it pertains to them. Read the Parker decision.

And why, on earth, are police handguns exempted by the proposed law? If a crooked cop uses his issued weapon to do a hit for a gang, as a few LAPD cops have done, why wouldn't we want to know about it?

Hmmm. If this so-called "microstamping" bill is so good (i.e. low cost to impliment, no hassle to anyone, etc.), why then are firearms sold to law enforcement exempt? What possible reason could there be from exempting *any* police officer from *any* gun control bill? Funny how people like Mr. Dix avoid answering these types of questions.

I'll answer it for you. It is because without these law-enforcement exemptions, law enforcement (or more correctly, the chiefs) would not support these gun-control laws.

Another point regarding the disarmament of the law-abiding.

Police have no duty at law to protect a particular individual. This is good case law, because they can't. When life and death are a matter of seconds, the police almost invariably are just minutes away.

I have been stalked. The only reason a real attempt was not made on my life is because of precautions I took and the aims of the stalker, to threaten but perhaps not to kill. He did firebomb some cars, and plead to 15 felonies.

Mr. Dix ought also to look at violent crime in the UK, reaching in numerical parity with the US and far higher per capita. Citizens have totally been disarmed. They are even jailed if they kill in self-defense. If gun crime is less than in the US, it is spiraling upward and guns are freely available to criminals. Remember the UK is an ISLAND. Fat chance anyone is going to stop the flow of illegal guns to criminals in CA!

Mr. Dix's kind of delusion is in favor of criminals, not in favor of their prey. It makes people further dependent on the state, when the state already clearly cannot secure safety on an indvidual basis for law-abiding citizens. This is not progressive and future looking, but regressive toward a less safe society and expansion of police powers at the expense of individual freedom.

Perhaps Dr. Dix is like Dianne Feinstein, endowed with millions of dollars of personal wealth to buy all the armed security he could want. The rest of us slobs who can't are the ones who pay for Dix's denial of reality.

Perhaps Dr. Dix is not graced with anything in his life he would fight for. I am sad for him if this is the case, but he should not desire to bring the rest of down to his level if he really is concerned with our welfare.

Dr. Dix, how would this BS have helped your dead son Kenzo? It wouldn't have, and you know it.

[For readers unfamiliar with Dr. Dix's situation, Kenzo Dix was killed visiting a friend's home when they were playing with friend's dad's gun, a Beretta 92, a firearm with a loaded chamber indicator.]

Dr. Dix, you're compensating for your failure as a parent to properly supervise/train your child, and your failure to monitor his associations. Your anti-gun rampage was apparently started to assauage your guilt for your lack of parenting skills.

This proposed law is not at all about catching criminals, it's really a classic stealth technique of Leninist "entryism" by the Brady types to reduce the supply of lawful handguns able to be sold in California.

AB1471 is a legal skeleton that can be added on later to even further restrict firearms marketplace to law abiding citizens in CA and create such a troublesome environment that supply dries up further.

Some additional comments:

(1) It will not help solve any crimes. Real cops doing real investigations have laughed this off. How come no 'real' LE rank & file organizations support this?
The only police support for this bill consists of a few metro police chiefs (so far detached from the street they probably couldn't catch a flu even with lights & siren) who want to jump further into metro area politics.

(2) It will not save even one life.

(3) Even if were to save one life, that's not worth giving up our freedoms.

(4) If it's so good, how come law enforcement is exempt? There's a lot of complexity in law enforcement shootings that sometimes need clarity.

Bill Wiese
San Jose CA

^^^
So Dr. Six is the CA equivalent of Carolyn McCarthy?

Dr. Dix, one of my nightmares is that I might have to bury one of my kids. I hope you will accept my condolences.

Our approach to the problem was different. I taught my kids how to shoot safely so that they would not treat guns as playthings, and would know to get out of the way, get an adult fast, if they ever found one unsecured.

Like teaching a kid how to drive safely, it was natural to me to give them as many skills as possible so that they would survive. They never have had to use the skills they picked up to save their lives, but that does not mean they won't in the future.

You failed to train your son to recognize immediately the danger he was in. It could have saved his life. Someone negligently left a weapon unsecured, and it was not treated safely. I am so sorry about your son. But the gun didn't do it. Negligent people set up this situation, you included.

You can run all you want, but you can't hide from this fact. I am indeed sorry for you.

So far, the only supporters listed in this story are political appointees, not real law enforcement.

As for this technology being robust and well tested-by the single company that owns the process, but studies done when previous versions of this bill was attempted showed serious flaws.

Where did the wide range in costs to implement this into the manufacturing process come from? Not from anyone actually involved in manufacturing.

With 2400 homicides and 71 percent of the guns recovered and already registered in CA, has there been any prosecutions?

Since Griffin Dix mentions gang violence and drive by's,
and most gun control laws affect only law abiding citizens and benefit criminals, and as it seems that gangs have been growing and free from prosecution, perhaps for their protection, they should be rounded up and placed in protective custody.

Mr. Dix-
I was able to gain some information on the tragedy that befell you and your family. You have my sympathies.
Your son was killed by a series of negligent acts that you decided was the responsibility of Beretta USA. In fact the firearm acted just the way it was supposed to. Would a chamber loaded indicator have prevented your particular tragedy? Maybe. Maybe not. Even if a gun is thought to be safe it should never be pointed at another human being while finger is on the trigger. No team of engineers can render a firearm totally inert and useless to those who are so reckless with their regard to human life and the basic tenets of firearms safety.

Of course it would be unreasonable to expect the boy who pulled the trigger or his parents to be held responsible for his/their negligence. You decided to go after the company who made the inanimate object and drive them out of business to punish them for an act of criminal negligence perpetrated by a 14 year old boy.

I have a loaded chamber indicator on my new Ruger P345. Lovely device that seems to work quite well. Too bad a poor design(should I dare say over design) allows for damage to occur to the firing mechanism if the firearm is dry fired without the magazine inserted. Ruger will fix it for free, but cannot solve the problem. It is now a weapon that can and will fail if I were to forget this. I will buy another gun that has a better reliability record. Should I bill the state for my expense to purchase a more reliable handgun?

I would like to thank you and our representatives in the legislature for allowing your agenda to endanger the safety of me and my family should this weapon fail when I need it most. I think I will buy another handgun of superior design which, ironically, defeats your purpose of eliminating firearms from civilian ownership.

I absolutely offer my condolences. No parent should ever lose a child for any reason. It is the dread of every parent. I am sorry for your loss.

However, we now have laws on the books that were brought about by a specific crimes or grieving parents. The laws were well intended but are having unintended consequences and more victims. The three strikes law was intended for "real" violent criminals with 3 separate violent offenses. The law now scoops up minor offenses afer a person has been given 2 strikes, many pretty questionable strikes. Stealing food and the like should not get you 25 to life. But that is just one of the current consequences to the law.

Jessicas Law and other child predator laws are also being found to scoop up the wrong kinds of people. The 18 year old boy sleeping with his 17 year old girlfriend labels him a sex offender for life. How many out there are guilty of that one? 99%. Come on. That's not the only thing, other "sex" acts are also destroying the lives of people who should not have been scooped up by these laws. They are always abused and misapplied. The death or murder of a child is always terrible but we do not need anymore laws. Well intended but have unexpected victims.

This particular gun law targets the legal gun owners. I agree with everyone here. It will do absolutely nothing to keep anyone safe but will once again give law enforcement more power that I will never give again for the rest of my life. They will find a way to abuse such a law and it will be one more step toward gun control and the loss of our freedom.

Grieving parents are responsible for terribly unjust laws on the books now and we have not felt the total effects of them yet.

The tragedy that befell Mr. Dix and his family is not uncommon. He-and I- are part of a generation that learned that if you demonstrate, get politically active, and get the liberal media to provide a sympathetic template for your story, you can get a law passed, or an activist judge to decide a case in your favor. Thus, for those who have suffered unfair, unexplainable suffering, the rsponse is to become an activist (dare I say 'Progressive'?). Sadly, Mr. Dix is being used by those who believe that they Know Better than the Great Unwashed who should and should not own a firearm. Moreover, they want the majority to depend on The Government for everything-Health Insurance, Jobs, Housing, Transportation-you name it. A disarmed population is not free, and they become subjects, not citizens. Mr. Dix, no law will compensate for the life of your son, nor will it stop the slaughter going on in the ghettos, or prevent random murder. Only an armed, educated, and truly free citizenry will turn back that tide. Teach your children well,educate them about the real dangers of this life and teach them to be free.

Another fuzzy headed gun grabber that Hitler would've loved. Mr Dix should try catching up on his history and stop trying to repeat it. The People's Republik of Kalifornia is already a semi-fascist state.

This is just an example of another bad law by grieving parents and knee jerk legislation that was not researched before it was implemented.

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-oe-fellner18sep18,1,7660027.story

Dr. Dix,
I wonder why you seem to be alone on this, without other "progressives" helping you out with the comments?

Could it be you might be wrong, the counter arguments too strong?

Does that tell you something?

Harry: Could it be that we are tired of refuting made up arguments without the facts to support them? Such as that these laws never prevent any crimes or solve any of those that occur?

Every time we publish an article it ends up on pro gun sites and there are tons of comments. That doesn't mean that the mainstream of California opinion, the one that is represented by majorities in both houses of the state legislature, need to respond to all of the comments from those who share your opinions.

Frank,
Made up facts?

Maybe you could be specific? Love to see the data you have that contradicts the FBI study. Or the UC Davis study. Or John Lott's work. Gary Kleck on the use of firearms to prevent crime?? Crime reported in "shall issue" states compared, say, to DC?

How about the situation in the UK? Is that all made up? Some proof, sir?

Why does Larry Tribe say the 2A is an individual right on par with all the others?

The mainstream opinion of CA might well be as you say. Is public policy then simply a contest of opinions or are there supposed to be facts and core values as the base? The "mainstream opinion" in CA set out concealed carry laws in the 1920's to prevent minorities from being armed, separate drinking fountains in the South. This is right?

"Mainstream opinion" in Germany once put some people onto trains for the camping trip of a lifetime.

"Mainstream opinion" might not be all that smart, even if you find it useful for your immediate agenda. What happens if the wind shifts against you, as opinions always are in flux. Will you be so reverent of it then?

Harry

Frank,
In dealing with the facts, please leave out Joyce Foundation studies by the same Harvard medical school prof they use. His last study, using unrelated data to reach a conclusion correlating gun ownership and murder within the home was farcical. I am sure you have heard of the correlation of coal production in the UK and the birth rate in the US tying out with 98% correlation for several decades in the 1800's. That study was more of the same.

Maybe you could point me to a Joyce Foundation-funded study that reaches any conclusion other than guns being a menace to innocent folks who possess them. I haven't seen one, yet. Amazing how they are so limited in their conclusions. If correct, Lott, Kleck and those other nuts would never had their work survive peer review.

Frank? You out there? Give it one more try, friend. We have never talked before.

Harry

Yes we have a gun crime problem in the US.

Perhaps we should adopt policies that would actually work rather than waste time on bills that would be easily avoided by criminal element.

If Microstamping does work, the one group of people who should be subject to such a law is Law Enforcement.

That being said, we we reduce crime if we focused on changing public policy.

Ending the Drug Prohibition and implementing a sane system of regulated distrubution of drugs would put drug dealers out of business.

That would reduce 30 to 50 percent of our gun crime.
Take non violent offenders out of jail who are in for victimless crimes and keep predators in would also help.

Put funds to help the youth avoid a life of violence would help break the chain of violence for some.

Find best programs, and adapt what works best.

Gun control is a divisive issue and as such we have no winners.

Take the high road.

Nicki

AB 1471 is just plain dumb, let's see if this makes sense. The vast majority of gun criminals steal their guns, or buy them illegally, but they do NOT buy them legally. How are we EVER going to know who stole the gun to trace the ID number microstamped on the back of a bullet shell? Alternative, gun criminals can and will switch to using revolvers, no microstamping, no ejected shells. Gun criminals are not as stupid as these legislatures seem to believe. Gun criminals laugh at gun laws. PLEASE call the Governor at 916-445-2841 and tell him you want him to VETO AB 1471. Thank you.

Shell casings are already "microstamped" by the ballistic "fingerprint" left on the case after firing. Don't these people watch CSI? You can match just about any casing to any gun, it just takes a harder look. And how about this: a gang member goes to his local shooting range and picks up spent brass from other shooters. Then, after making his hit with his REVOLVER, he throws some of those casings around. Even if this never actually happens, I can see it used as a legal defense. What will that do to the concept, do you think? Legally, it will render it impotent.

I say that arms dealers need to stand together with Ronnie Barrett and boycott the entire state if they pass any more of this nonsense. When the cops can't buy guns or ammo, and gunsmiths begin to refuse repairing those they already have, maybe they'll listen to reason.

More useless legislation from Kalifornia? No! It can't be. I really, really hope the majority of manufacturers simply decide not to sell to Kalifornia anymore, especially their law enforcement or any government agencies.

This reminds me of one of those word puzzles where you change one letter at a time to arrive at a different word. I still can't figure out how to get China from Kalifornia but Arnold must have some idea because he is doing a great job so far.

It's just a way for the dishonest elected state government to not let law abiding poor people have handguns, and even if the gun makers bother to make special models for the California market they're going to cost a whole lot more than the two or three cents that's claimed. Most gang members use stolen guns anyway, they outta make a GUN SAFE law, not some silly serial number thing that'll prove nothing in court even if the criminal went out and bought the stupid thing himself. I guess I have nothing to worry about since I'm a white guy with an address in a middle class zip code! Maybe I'll go buy a 357 Magnum revolver for my friends in the Compton Crips? All the gunrunners buy their weapons in Arizona, you pay cash show 'em your ID and then walk right out of the store with all the assault weapons you can carry, followed by a three hour car ride to San Diego (and several possible federal & state felonies).

This is likely the straw that broke the camel's back for me. I've had it with CA. It's my intent to terminate my residency in this state prior to Jan-2010, when the law goes into effect. In summary, another college educated, productive individual that contributes to the economic success of CA and pays his taxes will leave, only to be replaced by yet another undocumented, unskilled, uneducated and non-English speaking illegal alien who will circumvent any and all laws (including gun laws), all with the express consent of the legislators in Sacremento. A state full of dependants is being created right before our eyes. Me, I'm out.

Post a comment