SACRAMENTO – Today, California’s self-appointed gun-controller-in-chief Kevin de León rammed through new legislation which criminalizes the possession of family heirlooms thanks to the capitulation of the state’s “acting” Governor Jerry Brown, said civil rights advocacy organization Firearms Policy Coalition.
Assembly Bill 857, which will require serialization and registration of virtually every firearm possessed in the State, was authored by former Sacramento County sheriff’s deputy and current Assemblyman Jim Cooper, who infamously campaigned on a pro-gun, pro-carry license platform against Scott Jones for sheriff.
“Today’s action by Governor Brown shows how craven California’s despotic ruling class has become,” said Firearms Policy Coalition President Brandon Combs. “The Legislature has abandoned the Constitution, representative government, and the People of California. I fully expect the People to respond in kind.”
FPC believes that AB 857 may very well be the spark to ignite the flame of a political revolution, and that California gun owners will have to carefully weigh the risks of compliance before submitting to an openly tyrannical government that puts them and their Constitutionally-protected property in the crosshairs of a growing police state.
In 2014, Brown vetoed Senate Bill 808 (de León), which would have required effectively the same regulations as AB 857. In his veto message of SB 808, Brown said, “I appreciate the author’s concerns about gun violence, but I can’t see how adding a serial number to a homemade gun would significantly advance public safety.”
“Governor Brown has shown that he is not only without principle but a coward that cannot stand up to the extremists in his party,” said Combs. “It is sad to see the once-independent Brown bullied into submission by radicals like Senate Pro Tem Kevin de León and others who demonstrate daily their intention to destroy the Constitution and replace it with their favorite flavor of fascism.”
In its June 30 letter to Gov. Brown requesting a veto, FPC argued that, “In addition to many other terminal issues presented in the bill, AB 857 fails to conform its exemptions to federal law, thereby placing potentially hundreds of thousands of good, law-abiding people at the mercy of an unconstitutionally vague criminal statute.”
Piling on to the serious legal and drafting defects, said FPC, the Legislature’s own fiscal analysts concluded that AB 857 will cost state taxpayers millions of dollars to implement, “the cumulative effect of expanded misdemeanors could create General Fund cost pressure on capital outlay, staffing, programming, the courts, and other resources,” and that, because “the DROS [California DOJ’s Dealers’ Record of Sale Special Fund] Account is structurally imbalanced….an appropriation from another fund source, potentially the General Fund, would be required to support the activities required by this bill.”
“Since it appears that he no longer has his own position or takes a leadership role with anything, perhaps the Governor might consider taking over as Senator de León’s chief of staff.”
AB 857 is the latest bill signed by Brown that infringes on individual’s fundamental rights. Earlier this month, Brown signed six anti-civil rights bills, many of which he had vetoed previously.
“Moonbeam,” Gov. Brown’s decades-old nickname coined during his first reign as Governor of California in the 1970s, “should be retired and replaced with something more appropriate given his recent erratic behavior,” said Combs. “‘Flipper’ isn’t just for dolphins anymore.”
FPC said that it intends to challenge this and many other anti-gun laws signed this year, and that gun owners who wish to support those lawsuits can do so by making a tax-deductible donation at CalGunFight.org to help fund the “Gunpocalypse” litigation efforts.
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