A group of gun rights supporters began distributing petitions to guns stores and firing ranges. The group aims to collect enough signatures to secure a popular vote on gun controls recently passed by lawmakers and signed by Governor Jerry Brown (D).
The movement seeking the popular vote is called “Veto Gunmageddon.”
On July 1, Brown signed six new gun controls into law. Among them were a statewide ban on the possession of “high capacity” magazines, an enhancement of the state’s “assault weapons” ban, and a measure requiring background checks for ammunition purchasers.
Then, on July 24, Brown circled back and signed another gun control measure he passed over on July 1. The additional measure requires that anyone assembling a gun at home first apply for a serial number from the government. It is clearly a way to extend registration and the government’s knowledge of guns owned by law-abiding citizens.
According to The Mercury News, Veto Gunmageddon believes the people will strike these laws down if given a chance, and they are using their petitions to secure that chance. Barry Bahrami is leading the Veto Gunmageddon movement. He said, “This is what the people’s veto is for. Anyone who knows anything about firearms looks at these laws and knows how ridiculous they are.”
Bahrami’s contention that the laws are ridiculous is substantiated by a cursory view of crime stats in cities that already have some of the requirements Brown signed into state law on July 1. For example, Los Angeles instituted a “high capacity” magazine ban last year, and during the first six months of this year, violent crime jumped 20 percent in the city.
Moreover, approaching the argument from another angle, consider Elliot Rodger’s May 23, 2014, attack on Santa Barbara. As he drove around randomly shooting individuals, he only used 10-round magazines—the so-called “standard capacity” magazines now mandated for everyone. So the new ban on “high capacity” magazines is basically a ban on using any magazine larger than Elliot Rodger used to carry out his attack.
AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.