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Gun Group Blasts 'Anti-Gun Prejudice' in California
By Susan Jones
CNSNews.com Morning Editor
January 21, 2003
(CNSNews.com) - A new state law in California requires handgun buyers to pass a 30-question written test and pay a $25 fee for a Handgun Safety Certificate, which is good for five years. A gun rights group is outraged, saying the new law amounts to a "literacy test" for would-be gun owners.
"It is an outrage that California law now treats gun buyers in much the same way that African-Americans were treated in the South to prevent them from voting," said Alan Gottlieb, the founder of the Second Amendment Foundation, in a press release.
"The right to own a firearm is no less important than the right to vote," Gottlieb added. "California is treating gun owners like cracker racists treated black citizens in the South during the days of segregation."
The required written test in California replaces a cheaper basic-safety certificate that was good for life, the Second Amendment Foundation noted. Would-be handgun buyers must also demonstrate their competence with a gun and wait ten days after completing all the new requirements.
There are no exemptions for military veterans or people who have taken hunter education courses.
Said Gottlieb, "Social bigotry against gun owners is just as insidious today as racial bigotry was a half-century ago in the South. Yet, here it is, in all of its raging demagoguery, alive and well in the State of California, fueled with the same
anti-civil-rights mentality that is always at the core of discrimination."
The Second Amendment Foundation chose the Martin Luther King holiday to blast the new California law that took effect Jan. 1.
"Dr. King reminded us all that a right delayed is a right denied," Gottlieb said in the press release. "Yet California not only delays the right to own a firearm, they charge law-abiding citizens for the 'privilege' of this affront. Regardless how 'easy' or 'hard' the test questions may be, this new requirement amounts to the same kind of literacy test used to intimidate would-be black voters when Dr. King was alive and fighting for their civil rights.
"Hatred is still hatred, whether the target is a black citizen or an armed citizen,." he concluded.
Founded in 1974, The Second Amendment Foundation claims more than 600,000 members and supporters. It seeks to better inform the public about the consequences of gun control.
Gun Group Blasts 'Anti-Gun Prejudice' in California
By Susan Jones
CNSNews.com Morning Editor
January 21, 2003
(CNSNews.com) - A new state law in California requires handgun buyers to pass a 30-question written test and pay a $25 fee for a Handgun Safety Certificate, which is good for five years. A gun rights group is outraged, saying the new law amounts to a "literacy test" for would-be gun owners.
"It is an outrage that California law now treats gun buyers in much the same way that African-Americans were treated in the South to prevent them from voting," said Alan Gottlieb, the founder of the Second Amendment Foundation, in a press release.
"The right to own a firearm is no less important than the right to vote," Gottlieb added. "California is treating gun owners like cracker racists treated black citizens in the South during the days of segregation."
The required written test in California replaces a cheaper basic-safety certificate that was good for life, the Second Amendment Foundation noted. Would-be handgun buyers must also demonstrate their competence with a gun and wait ten days after completing all the new requirements.
There are no exemptions for military veterans or people who have taken hunter education courses.
Said Gottlieb, "Social bigotry against gun owners is just as insidious today as racial bigotry was a half-century ago in the South. Yet, here it is, in all of its raging demagoguery, alive and well in the State of California, fueled with the same
anti-civil-rights mentality that is always at the core of discrimination."
The Second Amendment Foundation chose the Martin Luther King holiday to blast the new California law that took effect Jan. 1.
"Dr. King reminded us all that a right delayed is a right denied," Gottlieb said in the press release. "Yet California not only delays the right to own a firearm, they charge law-abiding citizens for the 'privilege' of this affront. Regardless how 'easy' or 'hard' the test questions may be, this new requirement amounts to the same kind of literacy test used to intimidate would-be black voters when Dr. King was alive and fighting for their civil rights.
"Hatred is still hatred, whether the target is a black citizen or an armed citizen,." he concluded.
Founded in 1974, The Second Amendment Foundation claims more than 600,000 members and supporters. It seeks to better inform the public about the consequences of gun control.
