Category: California
Having lived here for most of my life. I can safely say that this place is one really weird and strange place!
Grumpy
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The 9th Circus did what!?!
Ninth Circuit Rules Openly Carrying Firearm in Public Is Constitutional
The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled Tuesday that openly carrying a firearm in public is constitutional.
The ruling, issued by a three-judge panel, is a rebuttal to Hawaii’s claim that Second Amendment protections only applied to carrying a gun openly in one’s home.
Reuters reports that the case was brought by George Young, after Hawaiian official “twice [denied] him a permit to carry a gun outside.” A District Court ruled that the denial did not infringe rights protected by the Second Amendment, but the Ninth Circuit panel disagreed.
Ninth Circuit Judge Diarmuid O’Scannlain wrote, “We do not take lightly the problem of gun violence. But, for better or for worse, the Second Amendment does protect a right to carry a firearm in public for self-defense.”
The ruling for the constitutionality of openly carrying a firearm in public comes a week to the day after a Ninth Circuit panel upheld the ruling which blocked California’s “high capacity” magazine ban.
Both rulings can be appealed for the Ninth Circuit to hear en banc. After that, the next stop for either ruling would be the Supreme Court of the United States.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News, the host of the Breitbart podcast Bullets with AWR Hawkins, and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.
FAIRFAX, Va. — A three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit issued a ruling in the case of Duncan v. Becerra on Tuesday upholding a lower court’s decision to suspend enforcement of California’s restriction on the possession of magazines that hold 10 rounds or more.
“This is a significant win for law-abiding gun owners in California,” said Chris W. Cox, executive director, National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action. “This unconstitutional law criminalizes mere possession of many standard capacity magazines and would instantly turn many law-abiding gun owners into criminals.”
California Rifle and Pistol Association lawyers, with the support of the NRA, sought an injunction against the magazine possession ban, arguing the law violated the Second Amendment as well as Americans’ due process rights. A federal district court judge agreed and issued a preliminary injunction before the law was set to go into effect. California appealed the decision.
On Tuesday, the 9th Circuit upheld the injunction.
Meanwhile, in the trial court, a motion for summary judgment is pending and a ruling on the merits of the case is expected soon. Regardless of the outcome, the case will most certainly be appealed again to the 9th Circuit. By that time, the Supreme Court will likely have a new justice who respects the right to keep and bear arms as protected by the Second Amendment.
“Tuesday’s ruling was a step in the right direction. The National Rifle Association will continue to fight for the rights of Californians to protect themselves,” Cox concluded.
Established in 1871, the National Rifle Association is America’s oldest civil rights and sportsmen’s group. More than five million members strong, NRA continues to uphold the Second Amendment and advocates enforcement of existing laws against violent offenders to reduce crime. The Association remains the nation’s leader in firearm education and training for law-abiding gun owners, law enforcement and the armed services. Be sure to follow the NRA on Facebook at NRA on Facebook and Twitter @NRA.
All it needs is a decent gun shop to be perfect!
California: MASSIVE Data Breach and Significant Registration Problems with CA DOJ’s “Assault Weapon” Registration System
SATURDAY, JULY 7, 2018
Another DOJ Data Breach
Possibly even more concerning with DOJ’s online registration system were the reports of the system’s improper disclosure of personal information to other users.
There have been confirmed reports of individuals attempting to register their firearms who were improperly given access to the account information associated with another individual, due to a complete breakdown of CA DOJ’s registration application system.
In some cases, the system allowed users to see all the personal information (including home address, telephone number, email, and Driver’s License number) for another user and all the information that user had submitted for registering their firearms as “assault weapons”—including the firearms make/model/serial number and all of the photos and attachments to the user’s registration application.
Unsurprisingly, this isn’t the first time CA DOJ has improperly disclosed the personal information of California gun owners. In 2016, CA DOJ admitted to releasing the name, date of birth, and California Driver’s License and/or Identification Card numbers of FSC instructors to a reporter for Southern California Public Radio.
In response to that disclosure, CA DOJ offered a one-year membership of Experian’s® ProtectMyID® Alert. Whether CA DOJ will do the same for this blatantly improper disclosure remains to be seen.
CA DOJ Forgets Those Who Serve Our Country
Improper disclosures of personal information aside, CA DOJ’s chosen method of requiring all applications to be submitted online and include photographs of the firearms has prohibited many members of the military currently on deployment from registering.
Because many members of the military were required to leave their personally owned firearms at home while on deployment, they were unable to obtain the required photographs for registration. And for those who somehow managed to obtain the required photographs, they were still faced with CA DOJ’s online registration system constantly crashing.
It is equally troubling that many service members who will soon return from deployment now face criminal penalties simply because they were unable to register or are otherwise unaware of the changes made to California law.
Their personally owned firearms now classified as “assault weapons” carry a potential felony conviction, all because they were deployed to protect and serve our county.
NRA and CRPA attorneys have prepared an informative bulletin for gun owners unable or unwilling to register their “bullet-button” firearms as “assault weapons.”
This guide provides brief summaries of the legal options available to gun owners besides registration and additional information on how to handle any potential contacts by CA DOJ agents or local law enforcement.
In the meantime, NRA and CRPA attorneys are currently reviewing the situation and will be contacting DOJ for additional clarification on these issues.
Continue to check your inbox and the California Stand and Fight web page for updates on issues impacting your Second Amendment rights and hunting heritage in California.
** Let me see now. You have some California Bureaucrats, a fairly simple job to do and yet it still goes FUBAR. Go Figure! Grumpy ****
Possibly even more concerning with DOJ’s online registration system were the reports of the system’s improper disclosure of personal information to other users.
There have been confirmed reports of individuals attempting to register their firearms who were improperly given access to the account information associated with another individual, due to a complete breakdown of CA DOJ’s registration application system.
In some cases, the system allowed users to see all the personal information (including home address, telephone number, email, and Driver’s License number) for another user and all the information that user had submitted for registering their firearms as “assault weapons”—including the firearms make/model/serial number and all of the photos and attachments to the user’s registration application.
Unsurprisingly, this isn’t the first time CA DOJ has improperly disclosed the personal information of California gun owners. In 2016, CA DOJ admitted to releasing the name, date of birth, and California Driver’s License and/or Identification Card numbers of FSC instructors to a reporter for Southern California Public Radio.
In response to that disclosure, CA DOJ offered a one-year membership of Experian’s® ProtectMyID® Alert. Whether CA DOJ will do the same for this blatantly improper disclosure remains to be seen.
CA DOJ Forgets Those Who Serve Our Country
Improper disclosures of personal information aside, CA DOJ’s chosen method of requiring all applications to be submitted online and include photographs of the firearms has prohibited many members of the military currently on deployment from registering.
Because many members of the military were required to leave their personally owned firearms at home while on deployment, they were unable to obtain the required photographs for registration. And for those who somehow managed to obtain the required photographs, they were still faced with CA DOJ’s online registration system constantly crashing.
It is equally troubling that many service members who will soon return from deployment now face criminal penalties simply because they were unable to register or are otherwise unaware of the changes made to California law.
Their personally owned firearms now classified as “assault weapons” carry a potential felony conviction, all because they were deployed to protect and serve our county.
NRA and CRPA attorneys have prepared an informative bulletin for gun owners unable or unwilling to register their “bullet-button” firearms as “assault weapons.”
This guide provides brief summaries of the legal options available to gun owners besides registration and additional information on how to handle any potential contacts by CA DOJ agents or local law enforcement.
In the meantime, NRA and CRPA attorneys are currently reviewing the situation and will be contacting DOJ for additional clarification on these issues.
Continue to check your inbox and the California Stand and Fight web page for updates on issues impacting your Second Amendment rights and hunting heritage in California.
** Let me see now. You have some California Bureaucrats, a fairly simple job to do and yet it still goes FUBAR. Go Figure! Grumpy ****
Categories
Another Blast from the Past! NSFW
Femme Fatale – It took a lot of guts back then for this Ladies to pose like this unlike today!
Sorry I just could not resist posting this meme! Grumpy
Ministry of Truth: California Bills Would Create Fake News Advisory Commission
California Democrats author numerous ‘Fake News’ bills
Democrat California lawmakers are pushing legislation to create jack-boot agents of government through a “Fake News Advisory Council” – an Orwellian ‘Ministry of Truth’ for the news they don’t like.
After having my Capitol Press Credential revoked in 2015 and only reissued after an Open Records Act request of 10-years of press credential applications, and viable threats of a First Amendment lawsuit, it appears Democrats in the California Legislature still don’t believe in making no law abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.
Several of the proposed “fake news” bills say, “There is evidence to suggest that the dissemination of ‘fake news’ through social media influenced the outcome of the 2016 U.S. Presidential election,” as justification for attempting to create a government control of the media.
The ultimate plan is to expand beyond this unelected “advisory council” to create actual legislation authorizing state government to make this determination.
I know this because the original language in SB 1424 said just that: “This bill seeks to rein in the spread of false information through social media… putting the government in the position of determining what is or is not “false information…”, …and because I wrote about this in April.
In my article, Dem Sen. Richard Pan New Bill to Force News Sites to Use ‘Fact-Checkers’, I explained: “Sen. Richard Pan (D-Sacramento) is the author of the “Online False Information Act,” a new bill that would require anyone who posts any news on the Internet to verify all information through ‘fact-checkers.’ Sen. Pan does not name who these ‘fact checkers’ are, but I’m sure the State of California will create a new unelected body of elite state employees to oversee this.
“Sen. Pan’s bill would ‘require social media Web sites to disclose their ‘strategic plan to mitigate the spread of false information’” (to the California Ministry of Truth?), the first bill analysis explained.
Apparently this sounded just a little too authoritarian for some Democrat committee staffers writing the analyses, so Pan accepted amendments with the understanding that eventually this advisory board would lead to legislation allowing the state to determine what news is fake or not.
Americans are already experiencing censorship on Google, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. “Censored! How Online Media Companies Are Suppressing Conservative Speech” exposes how these major tech companies work with groups that hate the right — such as the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The State of California Ministry of Truth
Today, as amended, SB 1424 “Would require the Attorney General, not later than April 1, 2019, to establish an advisory committee to study the problem of false information on Internet-based social media platforms and to make recommendations.”
This attempt to push state-authorized news media is not limited to California’sBolsheviks lawmakers. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee signed a bill this year that directs schools to create a policy showing how they will implement media literacy instruction in schools. The law also calls for a survey to learn how educators are already teaching news and media literacy.
Sen. Hannah Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara), another Orwellian authoritarian, has authored Senate Bill 947 to authorize California’s schools to teach kids how to spot “fake news.” This bill requires the CA Superintendent of Public Instruction, by December 1, 2019, and with yet another unelected advisory committee, to identify best practices and recommendations for instruction in digital citizenship, Internet safety, and media literacy.
A similar California bill was introduced in January 2018 and has already passed the state Senate with no Republican votes. SB 830 by Sen. Bill Dodd (D-Santa Rosa) would establish the Instructional Quality Commission as another advisory board to the State Board of Education, and requires this new body to develop, adopt, modify, or revise, a model curriculum in media literacy. It requires the model curriculum to address, but not be limited to, the instruction of students in how to:
Democrat California lawmakers are pushing legislation to create jack-boot agents of government through a “Fake News Advisory Council” – an Orwellian ‘Ministry of Truth’ for the news they don’t like.
After having my Capitol Press Credential revoked in 2015 and only reissued after an Open Records Act request of 10-years of press credential applications, and viable threats of a First Amendment lawsuit, it appears Democrats in the California Legislature still don’t believe in making no law abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.
Several of the proposed “fake news” bills say, “There is evidence to suggest that the dissemination of ‘fake news’ through social media influenced the outcome of the 2016 U.S. Presidential election,” as justification for attempting to create a government control of the media.
The ultimate plan is to expand beyond this unelected “advisory council” to create actual legislation authorizing state government to make this determination.
I know this because the original language in SB 1424 said just that: “This bill seeks to rein in the spread of false information through social media… putting the government in the position of determining what is or is not “false information…”, …and because I wrote about this in April.
In my article, Dem Sen. Richard Pan New Bill to Force News Sites to Use ‘Fact-Checkers’, I explained: “Sen. Richard Pan (D-Sacramento) is the author of the “Online False Information Act,” a new bill that would require anyone who posts any news on the Internet to verify all information through ‘fact-checkers.’ Sen. Pan does not name who these ‘fact checkers’ are, but I’m sure the State of California will create a new unelected body of elite state employees to oversee this.
“Sen. Pan’s bill would ‘require social media Web sites to disclose their ‘strategic plan to mitigate the spread of false information’” (to the California Ministry of Truth?), the first bill analysis explained.
Apparently this sounded just a little too authoritarian for some Democrat committee staffers writing the analyses, so Pan accepted amendments with the understanding that eventually this advisory board would lead to legislation allowing the state to determine what news is fake or not.
Americans are already experiencing censorship on Google, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. “Censored! How Online Media Companies Are Suppressing Conservative Speech” exposes how these major tech companies work with groups that hate the right — such as the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The State of California Ministry of Truth
Today, as amended, SB 1424 “Would require the Attorney General, not later than April 1, 2019, to establish an advisory committee to study the problem of false information on Internet-based social media platforms and to make recommendations.”
This attempt to push state-authorized news media is not limited to California’s
Sen. Hannah Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara), another Orwellian authoritarian, has authored Senate Bill 947 to authorize California’s schools to teach kids how to spot “fake news.” This bill requires the CA Superintendent of Public Instruction, by December 1, 2019, and with yet another unelected advisory committee, to identify best practices and recommendations for instruction in digital citizenship, Internet safety, and media literacy.
A similar California bill was introduced in January 2018 and has already passed the state Senate with no Republican votes. SB 830 by Sen. Bill Dodd (D-Santa Rosa) would establish the Instructional Quality Commission as another advisory board to the State Board of Education, and requires this new body to develop, adopt, modify, or revise, a model curriculum in media literacy. It requires the model curriculum to address, but not be limited to, the instruction of students in how to:
- a) Safely and responsibly use and consume media, b) Access relevant and accurate information through media, c) Analyze media content in a critical way, d) Evaluate the comprehensiveness, currency, relevance, credibility, authority, and accuracy of media content.
According to the legislation, the state’s Instructional Quality Commission would develop a model curriculum and create a list of resources and materials for teachers. It appears the commission is made up of some really radical teachers and “educators” throughout the state.
Some dubious organizations, the Media Literacy Now and Common Sense Kids Action, have been working to craft model legislation, inspired by the Washington State law, to make it easier for other states to adopt the same approach. (Former Senate President Darrell Steinberg (D) is on the board of directors of Common Sense Kids.) Media Literacy Now says its mission is “To spark policy change in every state and at the national level to ensure all K-12 students receive comprehensive media literacy education and skills.”
If memory serves, this is what public schools used to do before the left took over and started feeding our kids a steady diet of leftist pabulum.
“We will use the vehicle of legislation to raise awareness, ignite passion and generate action,” Media Literacy Now says.
A Brookings Institute article on How To Combat “fake news” addresses the same. It is no coincidence that state Legislatures, and lefty think tanks only started caring about ridding the country of “fake news” after Donald Trump was elected. “Fake news is generated by outlets that masquerade as actual media sites but promulgate false or misleading accounts designed to deceive the public,” the Brookings Institute says. “When these activities move from sporadic and haphazard to organized and systematic efforts, they become disinformation campaigns with the potential to disrupt campaigns and governance in entire countries.”
“The constantly changing definition of fake news can give candidates and political parties a judicial weapon aimed at preventing the release of disturbing information during an election,” the Brookings Institute concludes.
The French Have a Law – what can I say?
A new French law aims to separate truth from fiction, but it will mostly just give the government more control over the media, Foreign Policy news reports. “The bill proposed by Macron would target a new category of fake news not currently covered by the existing law. Macron proposes rapid intervention to report, identify, and remove fake news by creating new implementations of référé, a special procedure that allows one party to refer a case to a single judge to ask for a provisional order.”
“Fake” Study
“False, Misleading, Clickbait-y, and Satirical ‘News’ Sources”, was compiled in November 2016, by Melissa “Mish” Zimdars, an Associate Professor of Communication and Media at Merrimack College in Massachusetts.
Included in the “fake news” list is Twitchy.com, truthrevolt.com, Gateway Pundit, The Federalist Papers, The Conservative Treehouse, The Blaze, Red State, Red County, Powerline blog, Pamela Geller, Lew Rockwell, Horowitz Freedom Center, frontpagemag, DRUDGE Report, Daily Wire, Daily Signal, Conservative Tribune, CNS News, Center for Security Policy, Canada Free Press, Breitbart, American Thinker — all of these news sires she called either “fake, biased, unreliable, conspiracy and/or hate.” (and she calls alternet.org “reliable”)
Melissa “Mish” Zimdars‘ complete fake list is available HERE.
Predictably, many news articles ran with her list under headlines that said: “Here’s a handy cheat sheet of false and misleading ‘news’ sites.”
Why the need for legislation?
Democrats are so unhappy with the outcome of the 2016 Presidential election, the only answer they can deal with over the election of outsider Donald Trump is that most of America was too stupid to understand that fake news was being pushed at them by Conservative news outlets.
According to Sen. Bill Dodd, the author of SB 830, “The prevalence of fake news garnered national attention in the recent Presidential election, where false and misleading stories from hoax websites outperformed actual news stories in terms of social media engagement. This flood of content can make it difficult for the public to differentiate between reputable news sources and false or misleading claims. The practice of advertisements masquerading as news has also seen an increase in recent years.”
Supporting the California bills below, but not limited to:
Common Sense Kids Action
American Academy of Pediatrics
California Cable and Telecommunications Association
California School Boards Association
California School Library Association
Center for Media Literacy
Congressman Mike Thompson
Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom
National Association of Media Literacy Education
San Francisco Unified School District
Scientific Literacy Association
University of California, Los Angeles—Teacher Education Program
Yolo County Office of Education
Next: Net Neutrality California Style – More Ministry of Truth laws.
California Supreme Court Upholds ‘Impossible’ Gun Control Law
The Supreme Court of California upheld a micro-stamping requirement for semiautomatic handguns Thursday — even though the technology does not exist to allow manufacturers to comply.
The Associated Press summed up the court’s ruling: “The California Supreme Court says state laws cannot be invalidated on the grounds that complying with them is impossible.”
Juliet Williams✔@JWilliamsAP
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — In ruling on bullet-stamping law, California Supreme Court says state laws cannot be invalidated on the grounds that complying with them is impossible.
The microstamping requirement, or “bullet stamping law,” as it is sometimes called. Requires that semiautomatic handguns sold in California have a special, one-of-kind marker affixed to their firing pins so a special fingerprint is left on each spent shell casing.
The idea is to give law enforcement a means to take shell casings from a crime scene and trace them back to the firearm’s owner.
Many problems exist with this proposed scenario. First, the technology does not exist. No manufacturer who is importing guns into California makes a firearm that puts a special mark on spent shell casings.
California Authorities Seize 500 Firearms From Convicted Felon
When you talk about states with the most strict gun control laws in the country, only a fool would exclude California from that conversation. The state prides itself on its gun control, and firearms are difficult for even the law-abiding citizen to obtain. There’s no way a felon could amass a pile of guns, right?
Right?
Oh, wait, that’s right. Criminals don’t follow any law they don’t want to obey. That includes gun laws, which is probably why this happened.
Authorities in California acting on a tip swept into a rural home and seized more than 500 guns from a convicted felon, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said.
The tip indicated Manuel Fernandez, 60, was “in possession of a large arsenal of firearms,” the department said in a statement. On Thursday, a team of state and local officers raided the house in Agua Dulce, about 45 miles north of Los Angeles. Authorities immediately seized 432 guns, the department said.
…
The next day, another 91 guns were found hidden at the Fernandez’s home, authorities said. Detectives also seized computers, cellphones and hard drives believed to be involved in the illegal purchase of firearms, the department said.
Another 30 guns were found at the home of a female associate of Fernandez.
Needless to say, Fernandez was arrested. He’ll probably spend a whole lot of time behind bars.
While authorities believe Fernandez was involved in the illegal gun trade, it’s important to remember something. This one individual was able to get his hands on more than 500 firearms despite his status as a felon. This despite the numerous laws designed to prevent him from doing so.
In fact, it’s almost like the laws did precisely nothing to keep guns out of Fernandez’s hands.
Nothing at all.
This individual was able to amass a massive arsenal for whatever purpose in spite of the countless laws explicitly meant to prevent just that. But criminals, by their very nature, don’t obey laws. Fernandez went around the law in some way, shape, or form to obtain all those weapons. This should illustrate the fallacy of gun laws keeping firearms out of criminal hands.
However, anti-gunners are experts at ignoring the truth.
They’ll look at this as evidence that more laws are needed. They’ll see this and be absolutely convinced that at least one more law is required. One more measure to pass and all of this could have been prevented.
The thing is, even if we learn precisely how Fernandez got these weapons, there’s little that will stop a determined criminal from getting guns. As noted yesterday, there’s a gun in this country for every man, woman, child, and infant. We have more than enough guns already in circulation that keeping guns out of the hands of criminals is a fool’s errand.
Yes, we should enforce the laws on the books. We should enforce them vigorously. But we should also make sure the law-abiding have the means to defend themselves from predators.
California sucks on that count.
Meanwhile, they can’t stop a felon from amassing a real arsenal of guns regardless of what the law says. Funny that.