When virtue-signaling politicians pass a law based on empty symbolism, it should be no surprise when it turns out to be riddled with unintended consequences. Our friend Clayton Cramer, a highly respected historian and Thinker, dissects California’s misbegotten new ammo law, here.

17 COMMENTS

  1. This also brings to mind the problems with the state of New York and New York City. TSA says you can transport your firearm and ammo as long as you follow their directions and guidelines. But once you step off the plane and claim you baggage, you’re a felon and are subject to arrest and fines.

    • The real problem is when “someone” with the TSA communicates with NYPD that a gun owner is flying in. I’ve seen reports of gun owners being arrested the second they step out of the airport, and the only explanation is someone with the airline or TSA tipped off the NYPD.

      It’s not the job of the TSA — or any federal agency — to enforce or actively help enforce any state’s law. If it were, CBP and ICE would be helping Texas and Arizona secure their southern borders instead of suing to prevent it.

      But as often happens, if it means screwing gun owners, they’ll gladly make an exception.

  2. What can you say? It’s California. My daughter and her family left California 5 years ago because it was sinking into a cesspool of idiocy. The smart ones are leaving or have already left.

    Competitive shooting requires a lot of ammo for practice and competing. Especially in the shotgun sports. When I shot competitive trap (ATA) I knew members of the club who would pool their resources and buy a full railroad boxcar full of ammo. That’s a lotta bang for your buck. 🙂

  3. If sound argumentation convinced the other side, they would have given up long ago. They would admit that lawful gun owners are not a problem. Neither education, nor facts, nor sound reasoning will stop their attacks against us. How long have they been fighting us, since 1968?

    • @ Roger Willco – “How long have they been fighting us, since 1968?”

      The unconstitutional Sullivan Act was passed in NY in 1911. It has only recently been struck down as unconstitutional by the SCOTUS. See this link:

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sullivan_Act

      The first comprehensive National Firearms Act was passed in 1934. See this link:

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Firearms_Act

      Unfortunately, the SCOTUS has not struck down this Act as unconstitutional although, in my opinion, parts of it are in violation of the 2nd and 14th Amendments. Maybe someday, someone (like the 2nd Amendment Foundation) will put together a lawsuit that will cause the SCOTUS to conduct a comprehensive review of the constitutionality of current Federal firearms laws. (We can all dream! 🙂 )

      The American Left has been undermining the American Republic, and the 2nd Amendment, for well over a century. We are seeing the fruits of their long labor in the chaos in our Nation today.

      They say that “Rome was not built in a day.” Likewise, it took a long time for the Roman Republic/Empire to collapse and die. We are watching a similar, long-term collapse in today’s United States of America.

      I am not the only one thinking this way. See this link:

      https://townhall.com/columnists/victordavishanson/2024/03/01/american-paralysis-and-decline-n2635945

      Kalifornia is simply further down the road to collapse and failure then most of the USA. The Red States may be “bring up the rear” but we are all being herded, by the Left, in the same direction.

      Yippee-Ki-Yay, move along you little doggies!

  4. This asinine ruling has decimated our out of state hunters that come in to hunt waterfowl in my area. As they are not California residents, they can’t buy ammo. Their hunting guides can’t buy it for them due to strawman purchase laws. Competition shooters may purchase ammo for use on the range where the match is held, but this doesn’t apply to hunters in the field.

    As mentioned in the article, its frustrating to live in California and take a class out of state, such as at Gunsite, Thunder Ranch or Prairie Fire and it’s illegal to bring back the ammo you don’t use (even if you bought in California and took it to class).

    This law is just wrong in so many ways.

  5. U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez is doing good work in trying to uphold the 2nd Amendment of the U.S. Constitution in accordance with the guidelines laid out by the SCOTUS.

    Unfortunately, Kalifornia is a wasteland of leftist ideology where they want to treat the 2A as a secondhand right. If they could, most of the courts in Kalifornia would gut the 2A until it was a “dead letter of the law”.

    The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (in Kalifornia) never saw a legislative infringement, on the 2nd Amendment, that they did not love. Such infringements have been appealed to their judgment at least 50 times over the last few decades. In EVERY CASE, the infringement was upheld!

    Folks, when you roll the dice over 50 times and come up craps every time, then you know you are playing with loaded dice!

    Kalifornia is a wasteland for the 2nd Amendment due to its cesspool of left-wing ideology. Judge Benitez reminds me of John the Baptist. He is a lone voice preaching the truth in the wilderness.

    Quote of the Day:

    St. Mark 1:3-5 – “The voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. John did baptize in the wilderness and preach the baptism of repentance. Or, unto. for the remission of sins. And there went out unto him all the land of Judea, and they of Jerusalem, and were all baptized of him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins.”

    • Unfortunately, Kalifornia is a wasteland of leftist ideology where they want to treat the 2A as a secondhand right.

      Respectfully, this is incorrect.

      Kalifornia is a wasteland of leftist ideology where they want to treat the 2A as a tightly-regulated privilege exclusively for wealthy elites and government enforcers. Normal people don’t even get “secondhand” gun rights.

      • “…the 2A as a secondhand right.”

        I believe that I may have been influenced into using this type of language by the text of the Supreme Court McDonald Decision (which was repeated in the Bruen Decision) that the Constitutional Right to keep and bear arms is not “a second-class right, subject to an entirely different body of rules than the other Bill of Rights guarantees.”

        It is a short step from second-class to secondhand. 🙂

        However, you are absolutely correct. The tyrannical groups in this country (which includes the Firearms-Prohibitionists) see firearm ownership (as you put it) as “a tightly-regulated privilege exclusively for wealthy elites and government enforcers.”

        In their worldview, it is not a right at all. Not even in secondhand or second-class form. It is too good to be handed out to the American People. We are just sheep in their eyes.

        Rather, it is a privilege to be doled out to the wealthy elites and to the people with political power. By extension, it is also doled out to their bodyguards and armed enforcers. No way can it be handed out to the “little people” and certainly not to the “deplorables” in “fly-over” country! Marx forbid!

        Yes Sir! I would put our current class of home-grown tyrants against any class of tyrants that you can dig out of the history books. We could win prizes in the “Tyrannical Category” with our current set of miserable elites!

  6. At least citing the old racist laws is intellectually honest. The roots of gun control are in ensuring that black people whether slaves or not are unarmed. This was later expanded to disarming Italians under NYC’s Sullivan Law and now has spread further to disarming honest citizens in general. Where is Martin Niemoller now that we need him.

    • And the system, purchased from Tyler Industries, is still prone to errors. Many NY gun owners are sourcing ammunition where they can.

      One legislator from the Schenectady/Albany area has proposed legislation to make it a crime to buy ammunition out of NY State; worse yet, criminalize the seller as well.

      • They’re all prone to errors, including NICS run by the feds. The systems may be automated and computerized, but the records they depend on are entered by humans, as are the requests and searches. “False positives” (an innocent is Denied because they’re mistaken for a criminal) happen all the time — if they get really bad, it sometimes makes the news.

        But if “false positives” happen, you can be 100% sure “false negatives” (a criminal is Approved because they’re mistaken for an innocent) also happen, likely at approximately the same rate, but that will NEVER make the news now matter how often it happens; it would undermine the legitimacy of the entire system!

  7. No surprises here. Virtually every gun control law written in the last 60 years was penned by a democrat idiot with no useful knowledge or experience around firearms!

    • More like 113 years rather than just 60.

      According to Wikipedia, the 1911 Sullivan Act was:

      “The act was named for its primary legislative sponsor, state senator Timothy Sullivan, a Tammany Hall Democrat.”

      And, of course, our Federal web of Firearm infringements traces back to (at least), the National Firearms Act of 1934. This was under FDR’s Administration. Lest we forget, FDR was a radical, left-wing Democrat. Furthermore, again according to Wikipedia, the actual legislation that created the NFA was:

      “Introduced in the House as H.R. 9741 by Robert L. Doughton (D–NC) on May 28, 1934.”

      So, make no mistake. The Democrat Party has been trying to disarm the American People, as a prelude to their permanent assumption of Political Power, for at least 113 years now.

      Not that the Republican Party is guiltless on this count. The Republican Party has stood around with its hands in its pockets, or (worse) has actually aided and abetted this undermining of the American People during this entire time-period.

      Our Political Leadership has totally failed the American People. The Two-Party System has now become a corrupt and rotten creature of the elites. It is time for new leadership.

      • Not that the Republican Party is guiltless on this count. The Republican Party has stood around with its hands in its pockets, or (worse) has actually aided and abetted this undermining of the American People during this entire time-period.

        And this is exactly why John Cornyn (RINO-TX) is unfit to be Senate Minority (or Majority) Leader. Remember, he co-sponsored the Safer Communities Act, thereby making it the “Bipartisan Safer Communities Act”.

        GOA is on top of it. (As of this writing, I haven’t seen anything from the NRA on this.)

        Call your Senators, tell them to oppose Cornyn’s bid to be Republican Senate Leader.

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