[Jim March]

Folks,

AB1044 will be heard by the California Senate Public Safety Committee on the 10th.

Call, write, EMail, fax, smoke signal - there's only six Senators, they ARE approachable, contact info for 'em is at the bottom of this page:

http://www.equalccw.com/ab1044.html

That page also explains what's up - Cal-DOJ is trying to pull a fast one. Be polite, focus on how this is a violation of the Public Records Act, which is why the newspaper political org CFAC (California First Amendment Coalition) is coming out against.

Thanks!

[Jim March]

This is the exact text of an opposition letter filed today:

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June 9, 2003

Sen. Bruce McPherson
Chair, Senate Public Safety Committee
State Capitol, Room 2031
Sacramento, CA 95814

The California First amendment Coalition, a public benefit non-profit organization with members throughout the state, opposes passage of AB1044 because it provides for the destruction of public records that are necessary to scrutinize and compare how permits allowing individuals to carry concealed weapons are being issued by various jurisdictions.

The concept of destroying public records that are needed both by government agencies and the public is wrongheaded and not supported by any logical need. For example, once records of permit denial are destroyed, there would be no way to determine whether a person answered honestly when asked whether they have applied for or been denied a permit elsewhere. Thus, a person known to be psychotic by one jurisdiction could successfully obtain a permit in another jurisdiction.

The California First Amendment Coalition generally works to keep public records available to the public. Destroying public records is contrary to everything CFAC stands for.

Thank you for considering our position.

Sincerely,


Kent Pollock
Executive Director
CFAC - http://www.cfac.org
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Jim again. Let me explain what you're looking at: CFAC is the California newspaper lobby. It's funded mostly by the Knight-Ridder newspaper chain and the LA Times. The two most powerful members of the Senate Safety Committee (McPherson the chair and John Burton) are sponsors of a CFAC-written attempt to strengthen the Public Records Act. The bill was SCA7 last year, SCA1 this year, and it's a very good bill (actually, Constitutional amendment).

That letter above is a "loaded gun" pointing right at every member of the committee. If CFAC were to write an editorial against AB1044, a huge percentage of the state's newspapers would run it. That makes CFAC a *far* more potent ally than the ACLU and so far as I'm aware, this is the first political alliance between gunnies and the mainstream news media *ever*.

It's going to give Lockyer and his boys one hell of a headache :).