I've been thinking about ways to use California's very liberal public democracy laws to change the state of concealed carry permit issuance in my state.
And it occurred to me that Mendocino County's "Measure G" offered an avenue for exploration.
Background: Measure G directed the law enforcement agencies to move the prosecution of users and growers of marijuana to the bottom of thier enforcement priorities, and, IIRC, forbade them to spend any money on investigation and prosecutions of people for possessing, using, or growing less than a specified amount of the drug. Not a change in the legal status of weed, since that is beyond the authority of an individual county, but a directive from the people of that county to their law enforcement agencies as to how those agencies would do their jobs.
So, it seems to me that a county ballot measure directing the Sheriff to use the discretionary authority to issue CCW permits under State law to issue permits to any person not expressly prohibited by that law might bear fruit.
San Diego, Riverside, and Imperial Counties come immediately to mind, as places where the issuing authority is very unfriendly to CCW, but where the voting population would probably support it. I'm sure there are others.
Such an approach also has the advantage of being much cheaper than a statewide campaign, especially considering the apparent unwillingness of deep-pocketed national organizations to spend any money to change the laws here. The number of signatures is much lower, the advertising markets are smaller, and, if you picked the right election cycle, turnout could be quite low, yielding a smaller number of people to convince.
So, to those with more experience than I, (Jim March leaps to mind,) would this be legal, would it work, and how could it be pursued?
Thanks,
--Shannon
And it occurred to me that Mendocino County's "Measure G" offered an avenue for exploration.
Background: Measure G directed the law enforcement agencies to move the prosecution of users and growers of marijuana to the bottom of thier enforcement priorities, and, IIRC, forbade them to spend any money on investigation and prosecutions of people for possessing, using, or growing less than a specified amount of the drug. Not a change in the legal status of weed, since that is beyond the authority of an individual county, but a directive from the people of that county to their law enforcement agencies as to how those agencies would do their jobs.
So, it seems to me that a county ballot measure directing the Sheriff to use the discretionary authority to issue CCW permits under State law to issue permits to any person not expressly prohibited by that law might bear fruit.
San Diego, Riverside, and Imperial Counties come immediately to mind, as places where the issuing authority is very unfriendly to CCW, but where the voting population would probably support it. I'm sure there are others.
Such an approach also has the advantage of being much cheaper than a statewide campaign, especially considering the apparent unwillingness of deep-pocketed national organizations to spend any money to change the laws here. The number of signatures is much lower, the advertising markets are smaller, and, if you picked the right election cycle, turnout could be quite low, yielding a smaller number of people to convince.
So, to those with more experience than I, (Jim March leaps to mind,) would this be legal, would it work, and how could it be pursued?
Thanks,
--Shannon
