AB1471 and AB821 email by member Fred H.

Hi Brian,

 [NOTE: Personal portion removed]

 I know you really enjoy shooting (especially some liberals’ records) and I would appreciate your efforts if you could briefly urge your vast and really intelligent audience to call the Governator (916-445-2841) and urge him to veto Bills AB 1471 and AB 821 this week, or else they will automatically become law.

 This week, we have two bills on Schwarzenegger’s desk that could hurt all of us in the future if he does not veto them.  One bill (AB 1471) could outlaw a good percentage of the handguns we now own, declaring them “unsafe” and the other (AB 821) could raise the cost of ammunition for hunting and is a step in the direction of banning all lead ammunition.

 AB 1471 is based on unproven science and has failed in field trials.  Even the sponsors of this bill and the single company that owns this technology admit that it will not work on the majority of handguns made today.

 The unintended, or possibly intended, consequences of this bill would declare all handguns already owned "unsafe" by not having the required "microstamping" and allow their collection and destruction.  Since revolvers cannot use this technology, all of them could be banned.

 If this bill becomes law, it would cost the state of California untold amounts of money, as many manufacturers will not spend the money to re-tool their factories, particularly by the competition handgun manufacturers.

 To defeat the crime-solving intentions of this bill, all a criminal has to do is to grab a handful of spent brass at a local gun range and dump them at a crime scene.  Many peace officers practice at local ranges.  Imagine what would happen if bullet casings found at a crime scene pointed to a dozen or so police officers, as well as other law-abiding citizens who happened to be using the range for practice.  Imagine all the investigative time wasted tracking down false leads.

 Also, since a nearly all gang killings are made with stolen weapons, the bullet casings would point to the owner of the weapon, and not the killer.

 Criminals can easily remove the microstamping by simply running a common nail file over the firing pin a couple of times.  A criminal could also change out the firing pin on a handgun very easily.  Even if it is against the law to change a firing pin, since when do criminals follow the laws?  This bill could also outlaw gun repairs (only for law-abiding citizens) if a firing pin is damaged through normal wear and tear.

 AB 821 tries to “save the California Condors” by elimination the use of all bullets containing lead in the areas the state determines to be their habitat.

There has been one documented case of a California Condor dying from lead poisoning, and that was due to a Fish and Game warden shooting a pig so that particular Condor would have something to eat.  I am quite skeptical about that because the report on the bird’s death did not take into consideration of other sources of lead occurring naturally in the area.  This is some more junk science.  If eating a single lead bullet will kill a bird, then our duck and geese population would have died out long ago from the lead shot.

 Thanks!

 Fred Hoot

(Fred of Sunnyvale )

VP, Golden State Second Amendment Council

http://www.gs2ac.com

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