Richard Thomson
Even the Sacramento Bee agrees, the California Legislature’s lawmaking process is way too sneaky.
As we documented at length in our “History of Gunpocalypse” video, anti-rights politicians skirted normal procedures and used the shady “gut-and-amend” process to send 12 gun control bills to Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk.
Dan Walters, a columnist at the Sacramento Bee who follows Sacramento’s shenanigans, recently wrote about the tactics our leaders have used for decades to keep the public in the dark.
As he describes, back in the ‘80s the “conference committee” was the tool of choice:
[E]ntirely new bits of legislation would be written “in conference,” without committees even meeting, and quickly enacted.
People wised up to that, and legislators faked a reform. But as we all know, they never really reform – they just change tactics:
“…sneakiness then shifted into what’s called “gut-and-amend,” in which bills are stripped of their contents and entirely new provisions inserted, often with scant opportunity for scrutiny before action.
In fact, most budget trailer bills are gut-and-amend products and misuse sparked a ballot measure, Proposition 54, which would require bills to be in print for 72 hours before votes.”
It’s unbelievable that we have to have a ballot measure requiring our lawmakers to allow us to read bills for 72 hours before they’re voted on.
They must know that if bills – such as those rammed through during Gunpocalypse – were public for at least 72 hours before a vote, people would contact their legislators and these civil rights-eroding efforts wouldn’t have a chance.
We must fight back against these laws that were hustled through the process, which are:
SB 880 (Hall) and AB 1135 (Levine): Bans common and constitutionally protected firearms that have magazine locking devices.
SB 1235 (de Leon): Now competes with Gavin Newsom’s Safety for All Act/Ammo Ban.
SB 1446 (Hancock): Confiscation of lawfully acquired, standard capacity ammunition feeding devices.
AB 857 (Cooper): Forced “Ghost Gun” registration.
AB 1511 (Santiago): Bans the loaning of firearms.
And AB 1695 (Bonta): Makes some non-violent misdemeanors punishable by prohibitions on owning firearms.
Even though these laws were shoved down our throats without following the legislative rules, we are not relenting in our fight.
We are actively preparing a hard-hitting response to these outrageous assaults on YOUR RIGHTS.
We agree with Dan Walters, that the legislature’s status quo is to “do what they do with minimum exposure to the public, occasionally interrupted by spasms of procedural reform, which inevitably erode into further sneakiness.”
They will only stop when they’re forced into restraint by a body with greater authority (such as a federal court), which is why we are working with Firearms Policy Foundation to bring legal action challenging the Gunpocalypse laws.
But fighting gun control laws in court is difficult, time-consuming, and expensive work.
While others are fighting these lawsuits on the ballot, we are holding corrupt Sacramento politicians accountable with lawsuits that need to be researched and drawn up far in advance to give them a fighting chance.
Help ensure that we have a backstop against these laws.
Fight back today.
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