Posted on 12/06/2005 6:52:52 PM PST by William Tell
The "Right to Possess Firearms" initiative submitted by The Alliance for Civil Rights has received Title and Summary from the Attorney General of California. Petition form files are available here.
This Initiative Constitutional Amendment will prohibit government infringement of the right of Californians to keep and bear arms. The initiative is carefully crafted to instruct the courts to treat the right to keep and bear arms in the same protective fashion that currently applies to freedom of speech and freedom of the press.
The proposition reads as follows:
Signatures must be gathered from approximately 800,000 registered voters in order to qualify the measure for a place on the November, 2006 general election ballot.
Organizers have now identified 70 volunteers whose contact information is listed on the volunteer's web site, rkba.members.sonic.net. The 29 counties with identified volunteers contain 91% of the state's population.
If you wish to become a listed volunteer, send your contact information ( county, name, phone, email, and/or address ) to Dave at rkba@sonic.net.
If there are already listed volunteers for your county, let them know that you are willing to help now to gather signatures and distribute petitions.
Critical counties without volunteers are San Luis Obispo and Ventura. If you know of pro-gun people living in those counties please let them know that their help is needed now to ensure that the petition drive gets off to the most successful start. The goal is to have petitions and petition packets available at most gun stores in California in the first several weeks of the petition drive.
I'm in San Diego co. Escondido to be specific. I'll see if I can download the file and take it to Kinkos as suggested. I shold be able to get about a dozen signitures on my own.
BTW, do you have anyone going to the Del Mar gun show this weekend?
What are the CA laws that pertain to carrying a concealed weapon? Are guns taxed every year like they do in NY?
I got one of those fancy HP laser-thingies. LOL.
Most such printers have a feed tray of some kind which is 8.5x11, but they also have a feed slot which is 8.5 inches wide. You may find that you can reconfigure the printer to print on 8.5x14 paper and "manual feed". The printer will then wait for you to insert the 8.5x14 paper before printing it.
For double sided printing, you wait until the first side is printed and then re-insert the paper with the other side up to print the second side.
You may have a printer that only printes 8.5x11, but it doesn't cost the manufacturer much to handle the situation as I have described, so they tend to include those capabilities.
I'm not aware of such a show. Can you identify the promoter for me and verify the date? We would certainly want to have volunteers there.
Please post the information and email it to Dave at rkba@sonic.net.
California has what is called a "may issue" concealed carry law. This allows the county sheriff or the city police chief to use his discretion in deciding whether a person has "good cause" to carry a concealed firearm.
The result is that about 4,306 people have "good cause" in Kern county (population 665,367) and only 10 permits in San Francisco County ( population 780,963). I got this information from www.packing.org, the California page.
And no, the anti-gun legislature has not yet tried to put an annual tax on firearms. This might be because California requires a two-thirds majority to enact new taxes, I think, and the Demoncrats lack such a super-majority.
That's great. Don't hesitate to get enough petitions to push things to the next level. People who are willing to sign may know other people who are willing to sign. Provide them with a petition form. But make sure you get their signature first on your form.
Also ask whether your signers know of any good volunteer candidates.
Yes, there will be forms at the Del Mar show!
I'm still working on organizing a schedule for volunteers. I'm planning on being there Saturday afternoon and at least some time on Sunday. I'm going to do my absolute best to have someone there Saturday AM. But even if our table is empty at any given point, there's a guy who has a table for CCW classes who will have petitions available.
As jnojr points out, there will be volunteers there, but there is a need for somebody to work the table first thing in the morning on Saturday and Sunday may not be fully covered.
If you can volunteer a few hours during those periods, contact Dave at rkba@sonic.net.
The inalienable right to defend life and liberty as set forth in Article I, Section 1 of the California Constitution includes the fundamental right of each person to keep and bear arms for the defense of self, family and home. This right shall not be infringed.
1. All State government action regulating the right of law-abiding persons to acquire and possess arms for the defense of self, family and home shall be subject to strict scrutiny, in the same respect as the freedoms of speech and of the press. All county, city and local government action on this subject is preempted by state law and this Amendment.
2. This Amendment does not limit the State from regulating the acquisition and possession of arms by: felons, minors, the mentally incompetent, and any person subject to restraining orders based upon their own violent conduct.
Nachoman said: "Am I the only one who finds it strange and sad you have to ask your state gov't to grant you a right enumerated by the Constitution? "
Willam Tell replies:
The federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (affectionately known as the "Ninth Circus") has ruled that the Second Amendment of the US Constitution is not an individual right. The US Supreme Court has refused to reverse them.
It is certainly strange and sad that we should have to ask our state government to grant us a right to keep and bear arms.
If a majority of California voters approve the amendment, then it becomes the law of the land. Approval of the legislature or the governor are not required.
Let's hope that this passes.. It would be a good start to reversing Ca's prohibitive 'laws' that infringe upon our 2nd Amendment rights.
Unfortunately, as it is worded, it seems to do nothing to prevent further legislative prohibitive 'regulations', or correcting the ones in effect.
--- Or am I missing something?
"I'm going to do my absolute best to have someone there Saturday AM."
I am planning to go to the show on Saturday. I would be happy to help out for awhile. I might even be able to fill the early slot for you. What time?
The reason that so few regulations exist regarding the First Amendment is that the courts keep a watchful eye over such laws. If a person is charged with a crime for "lap dancing", for example, the courts have a responsibility to consider whether such a law is constitutional or not. Typically it is higher courts that do this, but lower courts probably do have this power and could, given that an amendment has been recently passed, take it into account.
"Strict scrutiny" is a difficult bar to meet. Existing laws will not be immune from review using this standard.
Also, the amendment spells out the power of the government to "regulate acquisition and possession" by "felons, minors, the mentally incompetent, and any person subject to restraining orders based upon their own violent conduct". For all others, the right shall not be infringed. One might argue that this amendment will not strike down every provision of every existing gun law in California. But it would not be reasonable to expect that existing gun laws will not be greatly affected.
I don't have a lot of information about it, but I believe that Wisconsin passed their own right to keep and bear arms amendment. Their courts are just now struggling with pre-existing laws. There is great impetus for the legislature to act now, in accord with the amendment, before the courts completely invalidate existing laws.
From what I see on Rabid Dog's FR personal page, you may be referring to a Ventura County FreeRepublic chapter.
Most Freepers would, I think, want to sign the petition and get their friends and neighbors to sign. There is no pre-determined commitment for volunteers. We are all very busy, productive people and have lives of our own. Most of us just want the government to leave us alone.
From time to time, however, there is a need to become pro-active to preserve our rights. This is one of those times. Success depends upon those who can do "something", deciding not to do "nothing". Becoming a listed volunteer is just a way to make sure that people can begin a local effort to gather these signatures. There is no way to do all of this from one location in the state. Even if we had the money to pay signature gatherers, there would have to be some local presence to organize that.
A FreeRepublic Chapter would be a fine vehicle for getting the word out. If you find any good volunteer prospects, have them contact Dave at rkba@sonic.net.
A volunteer has just stepped up in San Luis Obispo County. He is going to gather signatures at the upcoming Paso Robles Gun Show. There may be people in Ventura County who could make it to that show to help.
I'll get some paper stock and give it a try. Thanks.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.