Posted on 04/13/2013 10:00:45 AM PDT by marktwain
SAN CARLOS, CA – The Calguns Foundation has filed a lawsuit on behalf of seven California residents today against Attorney General Kamala Harris, the California Department of Justice, and DOJ Bureau of Firearms Chief Stephen Lindley. The case challenges the DOJ’s policy of requiring some firearm purchasers to prove their legal standing to take possession of acquired firearms and forcing them to wait beyond the statutory 10-day waiting period.
One plaintiff in the case, Daniel Schoepf of Long Beach, California, was denied his fundamental right to keep and bear arms for self-defense even after DOJ told him that he was legally eligible to purchase and possess firearms.
In 1984, Schoepf was detained in Los Angeles County for having two tablets in his pocket that were later discovered to be common, non-prescription pills. The detectives subsequently released Schoepf and no charges were filed. In 2006, DOJ firearms section Program Manager Steve Buford sent Schoepf a letter stating that he was eligible to purchase and possess firearms; however, in 2012, DOJ reversed that position and instructed Schoepf’s local firearms dealer to hold back delivery of Schoepf’s gun.
“I know I’m not alone in this, that DOJ is wrongly denying many Californians their Second Amendment rights just like they are mine,” said Schoepf. “I’m not a criminal and certainly not a disqualified convict but am a law abiding citizen with my Second Amendment rights fully intact. They left me no choice but to fight this injustice in court.”
“Over the past year, the DOJ has been directing California gun dealers to delay the release of firearms to people eligible to possess them – sometimes indefinitely,“ said Jason Davis, attorney for The Calguns Foundation. “The DOJ simply has no legal authority to justify their policy.”
The DOJ claims that these delays are primarily due to lack of information in their criminal history databases. In a July 2011 Los Angeles Times article, assistant attorney general Travis LeBlanc said the DOJ’s criminal records database system was “shoddy,” with the ‘guilty’, ‘not guilty’, or ‘case dismissed’ disposition information missing for about 7.7 million of the 16.4 million arrest records entered into the database over the last decade – and presumably much more for older cases.
“In essence, the DOJ is relying upon their improperly-maintained database to deny the fundamental rights of individuals,” said Gene Hoffman, Chairman of The Calguns Foundation. “That policy is entirely unacceptable and we look forward to putting an end to it.”
The attorney for plaintiffs in the lawsuit, Victor Otten, agrees.
“Our clients follow the law and so should the DOJ,” said Otten. “The DOJ is gleefully enforcing a policy that deprives my clients of their civil rights. The arrogance of the Department to think that it can abrogate the Constitution and statutory duties set by the Legislature is very unsettling.”
But, she so pretty. Just ask king hussein. LOL!
And this is whose fault?
I wish these Calguns Foundations guys would actually win one of their many significant cases they file that actually has positive impact on RKBA at the Federal level before Sacramento just bans everything down to the last BB gun.
Honestly, I look at pro-gun rights activists in California like they’re East Germans suing their Stalinist government for the right to say “Phooey!” In public and openly wear sandals and lipstick.
It’s easier on your life and wallet to just move out of California before some transgendered Latino California Dept of Public Safety officer arrests you on felony charges for throwing away a battery into the trash within five miles of a protected wetlands.
There are a lot of reason these CalGun guys (hubby is one) stay in California. We have one parent left whom his sister has conservatorship over, and she threw him in a home. We can’t leave until he is gone, can’t just abandon him since we are the only ones who visit him.
I’m sure a lot of those guys have just as valid a reason.
“The DOJ claims that these delays are primarily due to lack of information in their criminal history databases.”
And this is whose fault? —
Well, the criminal history database has no information on me either.
What do I do to put some information in there?
I’ve heard the ‘gotta take care of my elderly mother’ excuse from more than one of my California gun-owning friends who still live there. One guy is a police officer turning 50-something and has two brothers and four sisters who all live outside of California. I guess he drew the short straw and and was elected to become Norman Bates of the family. When his mom finally passes away, I guess he gets to start living his life. His mother is 85 or so and her mother and grandmother both lived to be 100. Oh well, darn his luck.
The other pal is also a police officer who has some years to go before retirement anyway, but he’s the one who has to take care of his elderly mother because both of his brothers are degenerate criminal felons and can’t be trusted not to loot her house. He’s working to pay their California disability claims because they can’t work since they’re crooks, so they sit around their rats nest apartment all day legally smoking medicinal marijuana dreaming up new scams and teaching their illegitimate teenage kids how to steal.
Both of these guys complain complain complain about the decaying state of California. Every time we get together, it a complaint-fest. Emails are always about this bill and that from some liberal jackass in Sacramento seeking new communist confiscatory money grabs and gun rights curtailment. Our old alma mater high school has turned into 65% Hispanic criminal hellhole, and the neighborhood we grew up in is now regarded as the ‘lousy side of town’, and yearly vehicle registration fees and gas taxes are through the roof, traffic is unbelievable compared to even five years ago, air quality going back to the way it was in the 1970s, and Sacramento Democrats run the show and can do whatever they want, etc. Its a Madhouse... a MAAAADhouseee... blah blah blah...
We’re long past me saying “So F’ing MOVE already” because they’re trapped with mortgages and elderly mothers and waiting on pensions that will probably end up being slashed, and they’re dating this new lady they’re never going to marry, and junior is still in high school, and the ex wife still has visitation rights, etc.
One of them has plans to retire from his law enforcement agency and move to some remote corner of California up in Siskiyou County and be the village chief of police in Podunk Pines CA. I said “But you’d still be living in California, you twit bag.” To which he answered “Yeah, I know... But I’ve never lived anywhere else, so...” then brings up several points already covered above of why he’s trapped.
Sort of reminds me about stories I read that when the hated Berlin Wall finally came down, the East Germans who’d been desiring freedom just peed their pants in fear at the thought of it.
There are a lot of BAD reasons to stay in California, I think you meant to say.
Well you can blah blah all you want but some of us have legitimate reasons for still being here. I take it you would just run out on your 86 year old dad who has dementia. That’s okay, it is more or less what Hubby’s sis did after a judge gave her emergency conservatorship and she stole all his money. Guess there are more people out there like that than I would care to admit.
In your case, if your father-in-law is confined to an old folks home, why does it have to be in California, necessarily? Take him on the road with you. Sounds like the further he gets away from your creepy deadbeat sister-in-law, the better.
You must have missed the part where she has Conservatorship. That means she says where he lives. Believe me if we could we would. The wheels of justice grind along. We have been in court 2 yrs trying to get her removed.
What are these “rights” you speak of, prole?
Guess that 10 day period doesn't apply if you buy from another state like a friend of mine did. He is from Cali on business in Texas and saw an ad in Texas (by a private citizen) for a revolver he wanted. He bought the gun and took it with him that afternoon. What 10 day period?
Do you seriously want to have your name in a criminal history data base?
Joke — I’d have to commit a crime.
I know. But what has happened is that people are having their gun purchases delayed because of inadequate data base records. My guess is that the police or the courts are not submitting the information to the DOJ. The result is that people who haven’t been convicted of ANYTHING are wrongfully having their purchases delayed. The DOJ could establish a policy to cover this, but since it would be favorable to a lot of people who want to purchase firearms, such a policy is unlikely to be forthcoming anytime soon.
I moved around a lot when I was younger. California is my adopted home and nobody is running me out. A HUGE part of the problem is that people fled to other states. You cant run from rampant liberalism.
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