Orange County Ccw Supporters - Please Read

[Dan M.]

Last November 18th, supporters of CCW in Orange County flooded the Orange County Board of Supervisors meeting in protest of Sheriff Sandra Hutchens' new, restrictive CCW policy. Many of you were there.

Issues came up about the repercussions of CCW revocation and how that might affect the records/security clearances of those CCW holders who are revoked. Sheriff Hutchens was to report back to the BOS after she met with the CA DOJ to determine what those repercussions might be and how to minimze the impact on citizens whose CCW licenses are revoked simply because she wants them to be.

On January 7th, she added to the BOS meeting agenda for January 13th that she wanted to appear before the Board and deliver her oral report on the matter. Six days wasn't much time to organize a group of CCW supporters to attend that meeting, but a dozen or so of the most ardent supporters managed to rearrange their schedules at virtually the last moment so they could attend the BOS meeting in show of support for CCW and to let their voices be heard on the revocation issue in particular.

You may have heard from the media about what happened at that meeting (link to Orange County Register editoral) http://www.ocregister.com/articles/r...rtment-meeting, or saw rumors here on the forum, or even read the blog on the OCSD website. CCW supporters were met with an armed presence of law enforcement officers in uniform and plain clothes who questioned most if not all of them and physically searched several of them. The OCSD blog says only three were searched, but that is inaccurate. The number was higher.

Not only were they searched, but they were followed virtually everywhere in the building--they were surrounded when they were seated by officers seated or standing nearby, some of them were subjected to what they referred to as intimidating deameanor--bullying--from the officers, and one female CCW supporter was followed into the restroom and and back out again by a female officer who was clearly there only to shadow her. Keep in mind that only CCW supporters were questioned and searched--not the Union people who were also present at the meeting, or anybody else. CCW supporters were profiled by the green OCCCWS buttons they wore (like the ones worn at the meeting in November).

Sheriff Hutchens made a brief oral report, but had no official correspondence from the DOJ to back up her statements and was unable to answer some pertinent questions from the Board. Supervisors (Supervisor Norby in particular) expressed their disappointment at her lack of preparedness. She is to return on February 10th with a more complete report and a further clarification on her CCW policy.

When she appears before the Board again on the 10th, we want to present her with another packed out meeting room. We hope--no, we need--everybody who was at the meeting last November to come out again on February 10th. And we're asking you to bring a friend or two--we want more people there this time.

We want to do this for a couple of reasons. One, to honor the folks who attended the meeting on the 13th and were subjected to the discriminatory attention from the Sheriff for simply wanting to exercise their 1st Amendment right of freedom of expression; and two, to show the Sheriff that she was mistaken in thinking that her attempts to silence opposition would be successful. Maybe she has a different explanation for what went on at the meeting, but the rule of Occam's Razor applies here: the simplest, most obvious answer is the one that should be followed unless a simpler more obvious answer can be given, and the most obvious explanation for the law enforcement presence at the meeting was a show of strength and intimidation.

We need to continue to show respect at these meetings by being professional, and we need to make sure she and the BOS know that the issue of CCW policy in Orange County (many other CA counties plus lawmakers in Sacramento are watching what happens here too) is not going away.

We only have a little over three weeks before the meeting on February 10th. That's not much time at all. PLEASE consider attending the meeting. Maybe you wanted to go last November, but couldn't. Here's your chance.

It'll likely be an all day affair like it was in November. That's just the way these things seem to work. It stinks. We know it and are that much more grateful to those of you who can attend. We'll post more info here as things develop. You can also PM me if you have questions and I'll do my best to answer them.

Thanks for reading this.

[Frederick]

Thanks for the heads-up regarding BOS in Feb. I was there in Nov.and I will be there in Feb. I am about to submit my application for CCW. The application in straight-forward but I would appreciate your imput regarding the cause statement. Any advice?

Thanks, Frederick

[THE Gimper]

Originally Posted by Frederick

Thanks for the heads-up regarding BOS in Feb. I was there in Nov.and I will be there in Feb. I am about to submit my application for CCW. The application in straight-forward but I would appreciate your imput regarding the cause statement. Any advice?

Thanks, Frederick

Contact CCWInstructor greg@firearmstraining.com with "Good Cause" in the subject line.

Please come to the meeting on the 10th.