Posted on 01/14/2011 3:42:19 PM PST by SmithL
A Southern California lawmaker has introduced a new bill to prohibit the "open carry" of unloaded handguns in public places, taking up where Democrats left off last year.
"We have laws to license weapons in California and this bill will improve them. It keeps guns out of public places by individuals who are not properly and legally licensed to carry weapons," Assemblyman Anthony Portantino, D-La Cañada Flintridge, said Friday in a news release announcing his AB 144. "Certainly, most folks would not want people walking down the grocery aisle or sitting in a public park displaying weapons. There's a proper place for firearms and having a proliferation of them strapped to hips is something that belongs in a Western movie, not Main Street, California."
Gun-rights activists have seized upon open-carry laws in states across the nation as a means of expressing their political beliefs, acting individually or gathering to carry their weapons both as an exercise of constitutional rights and for self-protection. They say they're both protecting their rights under current law as well as advocating for changes so that more people can get permits to carry concealed weapons, something that's sharply limited under current law. Opponents say open-carry practices should be banned for the sake of public safety, and to protect the safety and conserve the resources of police officers who must check to ensure the guns aren't loaded, in accordance with state Advertisement law.
Yih-Chau Chang, of San Jose, spokesman for the open-carry advocacy group Responsible Citizens of California, said his group is disappointed but not surprised to see the bill. "We are prepared to engage the Legislature this year like we did last year."
A similar bill, AB 1934 by Assemblywoman Lori Saldaña, D-San Diego, died in September without a final vote after two days of tense maneuvering; Saldaña was then term-limited out of office. The state Senate approved her bill on a 21-16 vote after state senators Denise Ducheny, D-San Diego, and Gloria Negrete-McLeod, D-Chino, lent last-minute support despite a phone and fax blitz by gun-rights activists. But the bill had to win a concurrence vote in the Assembly, where Republicans threatened to run out the clock on the bill by debating it until after the midnight deadline -- thus also threatening other bills awaiting votes. Majority Leader Chuck Calderon, D-Whittier, eventually won a motion to delay AB 1934's consideration, and there it died.
The California Police Chiefs Association and the Peace Officers Research Association of California support Portantino's bill, as they did Saldaña's. "The open display of firearms in crowded public places creates very real public safety issues, both for the public and for police officers," CPCA President and San Mateo police Chief Susan Manheimer said. "This is a good-sense public safety bill and we are committed to securing its passage."
But it will be ok for gang bangers and criminals to have open carry. Particularly as they enter your home.
For crying out loud.
ALWAYS the kneejerk over-reaction.
IDIOCY.
I agree.
It should be illegal to open carry an unloaded hand gun.
Guess this means no more strapping in the movies. Against the law to open carry on the set. At least movies made in Kullyfohnia.
Hah I was thinking the same thing.
Saw an open carry in Home Depot recently, but it was almost certainly loaded. I watched the guy for a little while and it was not causing any commotion at all.
We figure at least one in ten males in this area (So. Oregon) is carrying - mostly concealed unless you count the rifles in the pickup truck gun racks.
Because people who legally open carry have caused so many crimes. LOL
We must stop them from not doing anything wrong!
The problem isn’t with law abiding citizens carrying openly. It is with criminals and lunatics carrying concealed. For all the fear and panty bunching, there just isn’t any evidence that open carry people at public places, especially Tea Partiers, have ever gone off the deep end and lit anybody up.
The commies are on a roll. They got their new “crisis”.
Fine pass another stupid law..I’ll carry the damn thing loaded in shoulder holster....Damn MORONS
Fine pass another stupid law..I’ll carry the damn thing loaded in a shoulder holster....Damn MORONS
Oh this will pass unanimously. The People’s Democratic Republic of CA never saw a gun control act it didn’t like.
I can’t wait to leave this tyrannical cesspool to the illegal-alien dope-smoking transvestite community.
Flat wrong. This is not a kneejerk over-reaction. It is an ongoing plan to ban all guns outright except for the esteemed elite. Don’t confuse evil for stupidity. This is ongoing tyrannical evil.
Stupid people do and say stupid things. Next there will be a no knife carry law.
Then why do her officers openly display their firearms?
To intimidate the public of course.
Their state is falling apart financially and THIS is what the legislators are concerned about.
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