Andrew Rothman
Member
from http://www.gunnewsdaily.com/rw722.html
When Will the Firearms Industry Say NO MORE to California?
By Ralph Weller
GunNewsDaily.com
Monday, February 20, 2005
California Assemblyman Paul Koretz introduced legislation this past week requiring all center-fire semi-automatic handguns sold in California starting in 2007 to stamp serial numbers in the brass cases when fired.
The bill says that a "microscopic array of characters" must be located in the inner-workings of the handgun, presumably the chamber or on the firing pin, that would imprint the make, model and serial number of the handgun onto the brass case or primer. It's not specific but it does mention the case, so the firing pin may not qualify with a primer marking.
The bill makes no mention of what happens when a gun owner needs to have work done to their firearm and if it is obliterated or no longer visible after the work is complete. It makes no mention of what a gun owner needs to do if the "microscopic array" just flat wears down over time and no longer imprints the information on the case. It makes no mention of whether modifying a firearm to remove the "microscopic array" is illegal, nor, if worn down over time whether the gun owner is subject to penalties for owning a firearm that can no longer imprints the information on the case.
But, what the bill also doesn't say, but screams out loud, is that Koretz could care less about any of these issues. What Koretz cares about is pricing firearms out of reach so the average Joe can't afford to purchase a gun. Already hundreds of firearms are no longer available to Californians due to state regulatory requirements requiring certain features, indicators and state mandated testing requirements that some manufacturers refuse or simply can't comply with financially. Bills passed last year for certain chamber-loaded indicators and disconnects that render the firearm inoperable with the magazine removed, go into effect January 1 2006 which will eliminate another round of guns for sale here. Now there could be another hoop for firearm manufacturers to jump through starting January 1, 2007 that ends up driving the price of all firearms through the roof, not only in California, but nationally as well. And, who knows how many firearms will not be sold in California due to the cost to implement this across all product lines. Another pile of firearms will disappear from California. In another couple or three more years of ingenious legislation like this, no one will be able to buy a gun in California which has been the plan of the left all along. But of course, the only people exempt from all this are law enforcement and governmental agencies. Maybe we need to have a special plan for them.
Gun manufacturers are the ones that have to stop this kind of legislation. They need to band together and JUST SAY NO to this stupidity in California. It's time to take a stand.
All handgun manufacturers are challenged to "Just Say No." Get off the drug of government contracts and law enforcement sales to California agencies. Get off the drugs and tell the politicians of California that they can't have it both ways. While government officials drive your costs up with red tape, they negotiate firearms contracts to arm their law enforcement personnel. Just tell LAPD, SFPD, CalDOJ, CHP and every city and county law enforcement agency, every assembly person, every state senator, every police chief and sheriff, and Governor Schwarzenegger, that if this bill is signed into law, that will be the day all handguns cease to be shipped to California including all governmental agencies within the state. Do you think it will become law? Probably not. And, if they say they "we won't be held hostage to the gun manufacturers" and they follow through with the law anyway, cease shipments to California. That will be the end of it. The state will cave because they can't afford not to. The cries of whining police chiefs advocating gun control today will be loud and clear for legislators to back off. Manufacturers need to keep doing it for every new law that places an unfair burden on you as a manufacturer. It's time to get tough. It's time to turn the tables on politicians like Paul Koretz. It's time for the gun manufacturers to sit down and map a strategy to stop these people in California. And so what if they accuse you of collusion. These people are engaged in collusion to run you out of California. They are engaged in collusion of violating the constitutional rights of its citizens. By all measures, they should be branded as traitors, tried, found guilty, their citizenship revoked, then exported to a country they so readily emulate. So what if they don't like the way you do business. We don't like the way they run the government! Do you?
<>So take a stand. Threaten the hell out of them. Then stick to it if they don't like the threats. But you have to all agree as a coalition. Let the state sue you. Heck, they've been suing the socks off you anyway, what's one more lawsuit? Make the government pay for what they are doing. They have to be held responsible for their actions. Right now, there is no retribution. The dumb voters here haven't a clue. Otherwise they would have voted these left-wing liberals out of office in the last election. It's up to you. You have a right to not sell your product to a hostile customer whose only purpose is to run you out of business.
Quit hiding in the corners allowing some shadow manufacturer's group or hired lobbyists to speak on your behalf. You need to do it directly and you need to punch them right between the eyes. You cannot continue to take it in the shorts financially at the expense of politicians who only seek to line their own pockets at the expense of its citizens and you the firearms manufacturers. Send letters to all of them putting them on notice. Let the left who will feign being insulted by your letter open their big mouths. Let them start talking about their agenda to run firearms manufacturers out of California. It is as clear that my prediction of 1999 that the left want all handgun sales to cease here to the general public by 2010 is becoming a reality. But if you wish to save your industry in California, you need to start now. Or, the only sales in California will be to government agencies in another few short years, and it's guaranteed you can't survive on those kind of profits.
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