Posted on 07/07/2021 9:42:38 AM PDT by Kaslin
California’s slide into a socialist wasteland is hardly news. What is somewhat surprising, or at least intriguing, are the depths of stupidity to which local and state officials in the “Golden State” will go to fulfilling their destiny. Take, for instance, San Jose’s latest anti-gun gambit – a compulsory tax to pay for the “costs” of criminal gun violence, coupled with a tax directly on lawful gun owners by forcing them to purchase liability insurance.
These ordinances most assuredly will be challenged in court, and all but certain to be eventually struck down, even if they survive appeal to the uber-liberal U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
This means significant public resources will be spent defending mandates not even considered by their proponents to be meaningful. City officials admit as much, saying the ordinances “won’t magically end gun violence,” but vowing to press forward regardless. This should remove any doubt that the city of San Jose considers law-abiding gun owners to be part of the problem and sees them as second-class citizens to be run out of town rather than respect their constitutionally protected rights as Americans.
In all their gushing over how smart and innovative they are with their latest anti-gun scheming, Mayor Sam Liccardo and his equally clueless cohorts on the city council fail to explain how punishing 99.9 percent of non-violent, law-abiding gun owners for the misdeeds of the other .1 percent will have any positive effect on crime in the city.
If California’s already highly restrictive gun laws could not prevent the horrific mass shooting at the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority rail yard in May, what do these dunderheads think a tax and insurance mandate will do?
The same question applies when considering instances of “gun violence” perpetrated by criminals wielding illegal firearms, such as gang members and career criminals. Does Liccardo think these individuals themselves are paying into the system? The answer obviously is “No,” a reality again reflected in the mayor’s own admission that, “criminals won’t obey these mandates.”
This head-scratching, self-contradicting logic would be absurd if stopping gun violence truly was the goal. It is in fact worse. These mandates are designed directly and perversely to chill lawful gun ownership. Even where San Jose could make actual strides in tackling criminal gun violence, such as aggressively pursuing straw sales (already illegal under federal firearms law), the city instead has decided to further harass gun owners by ordering audio and video recordings of all retail gun sales.
Under current law, there is nothing to prevent law enforcement from tracking the serial numbers of guns used in crimes back to the original straw purchaser without such privacy-invasive recordings, but the opportunity to use the threat of a back-door registry via government surveillance in order to chill lawful gun purchases appears to have been too enticing for Liccardo to pass up.
While Liccardo and the San Jose city council may fancy themselves brilliant pioneers of anti-gun proposals, their vacuous ideas simply demonstrate their fundamental incompetence and their unwillingness to enforce laws already on the books to target criminals. For these municipal officials, it obviously is easier to scapegoat law-abiding gun owners for the costs of run-away gun violence by gangs and other criminals within their jurisdiction.
Such strategy, if it even qualifies as one, may score political points with liberal voters and the mainstream media, but the backslapping and fist-bumping will not last long when violent crime does not subside – which it will not. In fact, by running law-abiding gun owners out of town, San Jose will become even more of a haven for criminals. And, for a city that bellyached over “illegal” fireworks stretching their emergency response capabilities too thin, such a future is all but certain.
Instead of targeting citizens who obey the law and just want to be free from government harassment, perhaps Liccardo should ask why it is that so many people are fleeing California cities like his for the prairie towns of Texas. Asking such a question, however, would take a degree of objectivity and common sense clearly not present in today’s San Jose.
When all guns are taxed only criminals will have tax free guns.
Dad and I saw this coming to San Jose half a decade ago, and escaped.
Sadly, now it looks ready to follow us into Nevada.
the simple answer is that in (D) CA, a mayorship is regarded liberal powers that be as a stepping stone to a higher office. same with chief of police and school board members. by the time they rise to national prominence, all (D) candidates have been thoroughly vetted for socialist leanings. those found worthy are endlessly promoted in the media before ascending to the next rung. voting in california is a carefully choreographed formality planned in smoky backrooms. everyone is telegraphed who will win, months in advance. most of the time, it’s a pro gun control, tax and spend freak who is promoted by the media as a “moderate.” small-tome local politicians who do not toe the party line generally don’t make it to the lowest rung elected offices. there is a constant influx of immigrants and constant gerrymandering and now i suppose constant vote fraud to make sure that things stay corrupt.
this explains why local school board members elected to higher offices will suddenly come out of the closet with prefabricated liberal positions on issues with only tenuous connections to the majority views of local communities where they first found their support.
If events run true to form, Liccardo will soon seek higher and more powerful public office, leaving any “small” messes that he created to his (liberal) successor.
:(
They refuse to help law enforcement with police resources, prosecutors and DAs who will hunt down the murderers ant put the murderers away for life, and instead want to tax law abiding citizens for the consequences of their failures.
The irony is it’ll likely cost San Jose more to put these policies into place, oversee them, enforce them, than any revenue that comes in.
Bonus irony - who’s one the biggest providers of firearms liability insurance who stands to benefit from this? The NRA.
I live in San Jose and I had to stop reading this article because it makes my blood boil.
And how about the scourge of skin cancer out there? Extra taxes on all beach supplies, sun screens, boats, fishing equipment and residents for living in sunny areas.
Trump's red tsunami of patriot supporters need to primary candidates for Congress who don't clearly promise to exercise Congress's 14th Amendment power to make penal laws to put people like San Jose city officials in jail for abridging constitutionally enumerated protections, 2nd Amendment protections in this example.
Excerpted from the 14th Amendment:
Section 1: All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States [emphasis added]; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
Section 5: The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
Insights welcome.
Filthiest city in America right behind Houston.
nobody would ever obey the new San Jose city ordinance anyway.
it is all about the SJ mayor grabbing headlines to “pre-position” himself for higher political office.
He’s all about himself and his career plans.
Nothing more
They’re just getting started, this is peanuts, compared to what they’ll try next.
The problem is that under most circumstances there is no downside to dickhead officials for passing stuff. However, the second amendment carries extremely severe consequences to such officials if someone were willing to apply them.
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