Legally speaking, anyone under 18 is a child. This is no minor point (so to speak). Gun control advocates count teenage gang-bangers—of which there are hundreds of thousands—as “children.” Especially when they’re totting-up the number of “gun violence” victims. California Dems are on the same page as these “do it for the children” anti-gun agitators; using kids as an excuse to erode Americans’ right to keep and bear arms. To that end, the legislture just-passed bill AB-231. The bill amends California’s storage laws to increase penalties for unauthorized use of unsecured firearms. The new [CAPS LOCK] sign in California gun stores will proclaim . . .
“IF YOU KEEP A LOADED FIREARM WITHIN ANY PREMISES UNDER YOUR CUSTODY OR CONTROL, AND A PERSON UNDER 18 YEARS OF AGE OBTAINS IT AND USES IT, RESULTING IN INJURY OR DEATH, OR CARRIES IT TO A PUBLIC PLACE, YOU MAY BE GUILTY OF A MISDEMEANOR OR A FELONY UNLESS YOU STORED THE FIREARM IN A LOCKED CONTAINER OR LOCKED THE FIREARM WITH A LOCKING DEVICE, TO KEEP IT FROM TEMPORARILY FUNCTIONING.”
See that FELONY bit? That’s new. If The Man gets you for improper firearms storage leading to a shooting in California, here’s what you win:
(a) Criminal storage of a firearm in the first degree is punishable by imprisonment pursuant to subdivision (h) of Section 1170 for 16 months, or two or three years, by a fine not exceeding ten thousand dollars ($10,000), or by both that imprisonment and fine; or by imprisonment in a county jail not exceeding one year, by a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars ($1,000), or by both that imprisonment and fine.
Remember: “a person under 18 years old” could be a teenage burglar.
Even more worryingly, how will California cops know whether or not your stolen gun was stored in a locked container or locked with a locking device after the weapon’s been stolen and used in a crime? Will there be an official investigation? Sure!
How intrusive will that be? I’m thinking plenty. How about the po-po forcing friends or family members to testify as to your firearms storage habits? Perhaps they might raid your house to check on your other guns, to see if there’s a pattern of felony storage violation? No-knock raid to stop you from destroying evidence of same? Yes! Yes they can! That’s even if you reported the gun stolen within seven days (another legal requirements coming down the pike).
Of course, there’s an even worse danger here: home inspections.
While the bill doesn’t authorize the police to check-up on your firearms storage, California’s firearms registration scheme (soon to include ammunition) means They know what you got. So if Golden State gun grabbers amend this bill to allow cops to have a little look around your house before a stolen gun’s used in the commission of a crime, this bill makes that proactive process a simple matter of enforcement. Just like it is in the U.K. And Germany.
Slippery slope? Roger that. And that’s just the beginning. Or a continuation. CA legislators are set to pass far more draconian disarmament legislation within days, rogering residents’ rights without remorse. Even as thousands of liberty-minded Colorado voters send a FOAD message to their pro-gun control pols, the lights are going out in California. There is no safe storage for gun rights anywhere unless they’re safe everywhere.
The smiling sheriff above is from Oregon. The fight continues.