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10-25-2009, 01:52 PM
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Californiaccw.org is gone
I think there may be a history between this site and that one.... I'm not sure though as I am a fairly new member.
Anyway.... I check in there now and again. Here is what I found today as I checked in: California CCW Notice I have taken down this site, for a few reasons: A practical: I don't have time to actively maintain it right now The bigger-picture reason: the fight for CCW reform in California will be fought, and won, in the courts. We can't (at this time) win politically There are two places we can attack this politically: local elections (especially sheriffs, but also city councils) and also at the state legislature level. Both of these are not viable at this time. Sheriffs and other local potentates At a practical level, the problem with CCW issuance in this state is the sheriffs. They hold the keys to it. City councils also hold the keys because they could demand that the police chiefs they hire issue permits. However these local potentates have various strong motivations to not issue: Permits are a status thing. There is a deep psychological connection between the right to carry an arm and noble status. In Europe long ago, only the nobility had the privilege of wearing swords. In old Japan, that privilege was reserved for the samurai class. There's some deep link between wearing arms and nobility. Sheriffs use this fact as a way to reward the right people. They do not have any motivation to give that up. Issuing gun permits does not win broad political support in anti-gun liberal big cities. While rank-and-file cops are generally pro-gun / pro-CCW (they know all too well that they can't be everywhere), even in big cities here, the fact is that many of them also earn lucrative hourly rates moonlighting as "drivers". If you want an armed "driver" in SF or LA, you basically must hire an off-duty or retired cop. These are high-paying, easy, somewhat glamorous gigs. Easy CCW issuance would end all these gigs by allowing a lot of other people to carry guns. There is tremendous ignorance about guns and CCWs in the liberal big cities here. People still think that gang members would be able to be issued CCWs, or people would have shoot-outs over parking spaces, yadda yadda yadda. (Gang members are disqualified from even touching a gun in California, and 40 other states have shall-issue and they don't have shoot-outs over parking spaces.) Defeating sheriffs is nearly impossible Sheriffs are, effectively, elected for life. Sheriff Hennessey, the worst and most anti-gun sheriff in this state, has been in office for over 30 years, and has run several times without anyone else on the ballot. He is the most extreme example, but the others are not far behind. Sheriff Baca of LA is well-known for issuance of permits to celebrities, connections to Scientology, and being more interested in Hollywood parties than in chasing criminals. And he's still undefeatable. Other sheriffs "appoint" their successors by stepping down from office early in their terms. Meanwhile very few voters understand anything of these issues. They see sheriffs are "top cops" fighting to keep their counties safe, when in fact they are all too often merely "top politicians" fighting to keep their enormous compensation packages and political power, which rests on savvy handling of discretionary CCW issuance. It would be great to win at the city council level, but there, elections are fiercly contested and many other issues move the voters. Winning in the legislature is a generation-long battle At this time, California's legislature is locked up by a Democratic political machine. This machine rests on various public employees unions, including law enforcement unions, which are strongly anti-CCW. This same machine is the power base for the country's worst anti-gun-rights politicians like Senator Diane Feinstein. This machine has, over the past several years, succeeded in passing some of the country's most absurd (and bad) gun laws, such as California's assault weapons ban, the large capacity magazine ban, the ammo mail order ban (coming in 2010), the 50 BMG ban, and many many others. That same legislature is not going to also pass CCW reform. The last time CCW reform was proposed in the legislature here was AB 357 in 2009. It died in committee, as everyone expected. The previous attempt was in 1998 (I'll add a link and details later). It passed out of committee but died in the final vote. Since then our legislature has moved further to the left and further away from being able to pass such a bill. California's horribly gerrymandered districts, and the all-powerful Democratic machine, make it impossible to pass CCW reform through the legislature. To win it, we will need a generation-long fight to restore competitiveness to California's state politics, and restore the Republican party to some relevance. That is a much bigger project than CCW reform. I hope everyone reading this will take action to advance that goal. That means going to the vote, and voting Republican, even if there isn't a snowball's chance in the Sahara of the Republican winning. We need to restore competitive politics and a viable Republican party. Winning at the national political level would happen before we can win at the state level There have been multiple national reciprocity bills introduced in Congress every year for the past several years. They get closer and closer to passing every year. The Republicans have tried tactics such as attaching them as riders onto other must-pass bills. So far they haven't succeeded, but a Republican resurgence in 2012 is possible and could bring some viability to these bills. That will happen before the Republican party can be restored in this state. In conclusion: we're not going to win politically in the near-term It's pretty obvious, from looking at these factors, that if we had to wait for politics to give us a victory, we would wait a long long time, perhaps forever. And the longer we wait the more gun culture dies out in the state, and we could easily end up being like in the UK where there is no gun culture. Keep on working on the political side, but don't hope for victory from it. Victory will come from the courts As weak as our position is in the legislature, it is strong in the courts. Everyone should be aware of the stunning 2008 Heller case, in which the Supreme Court found (5-4) that the right to keep and bear arms is an individual right secured by the Constitution. I know, big shock, it's only spelled out in black-and-white, but that right had never been upheld by the Supreme Court until 2008. Much like Brown v. Board of Education triggered a series of court cases which spanned decades to define the meaning of "desegregation", Heller has likewised set off a series of cases to fully define what the right means. I expect these cases to go on for a long time, defining the subtle nuances. Right now, though, they need to work out some big questions to lay the foundations for what the right means. Does the Second Amendment apply to state and local governments? Does it apply to carrying (bearing) arms? 
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10-25-2009, 04:03 PM
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I don't blame them for closing down. I'm sure it's tough fighting a losing battle on CCW policies, and staying motivated, coupled with working for free to keep the site up. So either that's the case, or the Sheriff called the owner up and said "if you don't take your site down, I'm cancelling your CCW."
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10-25-2009, 04:13 PM
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Rico IASB. 
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10-25-2009, 04:45 PM
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SierraNevadaCCW "The difference between someone on the left and us, is we instinctively understand this through common sense, education and intelligence -- while liberals have trust issues, control issues and view the world from fantasy land."
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10-25-2009, 07:16 PM
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Most of us here "Know A Guy" Do you? You can call me Gun Slut, Mr. GunSlut, GS. Don't ever call me Slut!
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10-25-2009, 07:31 PM
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10-25-2009, 07:40 PM
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It's good, if you don't see it clear your cache.
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10-25-2009, 09:18 PM
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Glad to see that site pointing to here. It seemed like this forum was more active than californiaccw.org anyways. Good job for those in charge of the pointing.
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10-25-2009, 09:27 PM
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That sucks he gave in and decided to shut down the site. A pat on the back goes to CCWI for getting him to redirect his site to here.
__________________
How're we gonna shoot golf without guns? "It's 2am, do you know where your firearms are?" - In honor of Dennis Farina When the Boogeyman goes to bed, he checks his closet for Chuck Norris. "We must reject the idea that every time a law's broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions." ~Ronald Reagan If guns cause crime, all of mine are defective. My guns have killed less people than Sen. Kennedy's car. 
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10-25-2009, 10:32 PM
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Sad to see the site go. That was the first site most of us met at. Now all the information will be available at one site.
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"A kind word only goes so far, a kind word and a gun goes a lot further" Al Capone 1924 Be Safe, Be Confident, Get Trained! ® Copyrighted 1996 Amateurs Talk Hardware (Guns) Professionals Talk Software (Training) greg@firearmstraining.com Oh Yeah! Piss On Golf! Waste of a good range.
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10-25-2009, 10:48 PM
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10-25-2009, 11:05 PM
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Rico IASB.
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10-25-2009, 11:33 PM
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