News

The Federalist: American Support For An Assault Weapons Ban Just Hit A Record Low

A new survey from Gallup recorded the lowest support for an assault weapons ban in its history.
The most interesting data point from the poll is that the 36% support for a ban is a bipartisan position. Republicans, Democrats and Independents alike are finding a somewhat mutual agreement that an assault weapons ban is futile. Via The Federalist:

Support for a so-called assault weapons ban in the U.S. just hit a record low of 36 percent, according to a new Gallup poll released on Wednesday. The poll showed that 61 percent of American adults now oppose a ban. That level of opposition is the highest ever recorded.
Increasing opposition to the 1990’s-era gun ban isn’t just limited to Republicans. Gallup’s data show that opposition to the ban has increased across the board. Barely 50 percent of Democrats currently support the ban today, compared to 63 percent support from Democrats in 1996, just two years after the federal ban was signed into law. Less than a third of independents currently support a ban, while Republican support hovers at 25 percent.

Read more here.


Bearing Arms: LA Times Editorial Attacks Gun Rights, Calls For Nationwide Microstamping

The Los Angeles Times published an editorial Monday attacking firearms, this time by advocating for the use of microstamping to solve crimes.
The Times noted that once California passed microstamping requirements, gun manufacturers simply stopped selling new models in the state. The type of microstamping editorial boards propose that would make communities safer simply does not exist and is actually a gateway to an outright handgun ban. California already uses its handgun roster to advance handgun bans and the blog Bearing Arms cited The Calguns Foundation handgun roster lawsuit, Peña v. Lindley, as an effort to defeat such deceitful, freedom-killing regulations. Via Bearing Arms:

“California lawmakers may as well have passed laws regarding the use of phasers from Star Trek, another technology that doesn’t exist.
But let’s assume for the sake of argument let’s pretend that microstamping is real, and not fantasy, just to see the absurdity of the Crime Gun Identification Act play out.
This in example of a firing pin, scaled larger than it actually is in real life.
If microstamping was an real, commercially viable technology, the gear code would be engraved on the rounded part of the pin that contacts the primer (left above) to leave an impression on the primer when the pin strikes the primer. The shell casing would then be ejected with the (theoretical) code left on the primer.”

Read more here.


CGF Begins Carry Policy Review Initiative

As you know, we at The Calguns Foundation approach gun rights with a multifaceted approach that encompasses both litigation and research. Not only is it essential to analyze how a law is written, but it is crucial to see how it is implemented.
Policy and practice matters.
We’ve been diligently requesting documents this year from all 58 of California’s sheriffs pertaining to their carry license policies, with the ultimate goal of creating a public resource on our website for all Californians.
We will also will be grading each policy with specific, fact-based, transparent public criteria taken straight from the California Penal Code and case law.
Our objective: until such time that all law-abiding Californians can exercise their fundamental, individual right to carry loaded, operable firearms in public for self-defense, the public has a right to know whether their elected officials are following the State Constitution, statute, and case law as it is written.
This is an exciting endeavor for our members because soon, all Californians will have access to their counties’ policies, will be educated to how their county implements their policies, and will be able to make informed decisions on pursuing obtaining carry permits. This effort may also reveal our next litigation targets.
We hope to count on you as we are compiling this exhaustive, yet vital endeavor to inform the public and improve access to law-abiding citizens’ Second Amendment right to bear arms.
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The John Le Story

These are perilous times for gun owners in California.
The constant stream of anti-gun laws and regulations out of Sacramento can turn law-abiding gun owners into criminals.
It’s become so overblown, so complicated, that law enforcement will arrest gun owners for non-existent crimes.
Prosecutors, the supposed backstop, will pursue charges and seek pleas or convictions where no crime actually occurred.
A  gun owner’s life could be ruined for merely being at the wrong place at the wrong time--and being a gun owner.
That was the case for Sacramento resident John Le.

The Calguns Foundation takes a robust approach in defending the Second Amendment. In addition to our pro-civil rights litigation efforts, we have defended law-abiding gun owners from non-existent crimes they were charged with.
That’s right. Not only do we have to challenge existing laws, but we have to challenge the prosecution of crimes that never occurred, based on laws that were never written.
View Le’s story and see how his life was almost turned completely upside down for simply driving as a gun owner.
These efforts are not easy or inexpensive. We hope that after hearing Le’s story that you join the cause and contribute what you can so that CGF can continue defending gun rights and ensuring justice for all law-abiding gun owners.
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Winning CGF lawsuit cited in major court decision striking down de-facto gun ban

Earlier this year, we told you about our major Second Amendment victory at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Teixeira v. County of Alameda, where the three-judge panel held that if "the right of the people to keep and bear arms is to have any force, the people must have a right to acquire the very firearms they are entitled to keep and to bear.”
And the consequences of our major pro-gun win are already showing up in lower courts.
Nearly 6,000 miles away from California’s Golden Coast, a federal judge recently struck down several of the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands’ gun control laws, including their registration scheme, a restriction on the caliber of long guns, an “assault weapons” ban (laws very similar to California’s SB 23 “evil features” ban), a ban on open carry of a handgun, a $1,000.00 excise tax on handguns, and a policy that seized firearms upon importation.
In her ruling, Chief Judge Ramona Manglona of the District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands (who was educated at the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of New Mexico School of Law) cited to Teixiera, saying that “The Second Amendment protects the right to armed self-defense, which includes the right to acquire such arms….The reason is simple: without the arms, the right would be useless.”
Thanks to your support, our legal action program is already restoring Second Amendment freedoms not just in California, but even thousands of miles away.
And we want to keep moving the Second Amendment forward, just like we have been.
Please consider making a tax-deductible donation of $50, $25, or whatever you can today so we can keep fighting and winning for you and our Constitutional rights.
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