(Another) Major State Passes Gun Control Bill

California Gun Confiscation Bill Passes, Approves $24 Million To Expedite Illegal Gun Seizure

The California state legislature passed a bill Thursday approving $24 million to expedite the confiscation of the estimated 40,000 handguns and assault weapons illegally owned by Californians.

SB 140, authored by Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco), seeks to remedy the gun-confiscation backlog that has left thousands of illegal guns on the streets, including those owned by those with criminal convictions or serious mental illness.

“We are fortunate in California to have the first and only system in the nation that tracks and identifies individuals who at one time made legal purchases of firearms but are now barred from possessing them,” Leno said in a statement. “However, due to a lack of resources, only a few of these illegally possessed weapons have been confiscated, and the mountain of firearms continues to grow each day."

The measure will take $24 million from the Dealer Record of Sale (DROS) surplus funds and give it to the California Department of Justice, which is in charge of confiscating illegal guns. The DROS account holds fees that are imposed upon every transfer or sale of a firearm in California.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/1 ... 17238.html

Good to see them start to confiscate the ILLEGAL weapons in California...

:snooze

What's the matter SFB - disappointed that the Boston bombers didn't turn out to be any of the groups you so love to hate?

And next California is going to ban lead ammo.

Nah... As long as they start confiscating the ILLEGAL guns, that's a great start.

It's obvious right? New and old gun legislation won't keep maniacs from making a bomb? Feel good and emotionally driven legislation won't keep psychotics from killing large amounts of people, period. But it looks good to the public and on paper. Yea, great.

Meanwhile, gun control legislation at the federal level dies a quiet death.

What's Left For Gun-Control Advocates After Crash-And-Burn In U.S. Senate?

http://www.courant.com/news/politics/hc ... 5232.story

One of the phrases repeated often by advocates of stricter gun laws since the Dec. 14 Newtown school massacre has been: "If not now, when?"

That rhetorical question became a literal one Wednesday when a federal gun-control bill crashed and burned in the U.S. Senate after months of elevated hopes by Democrats, based on a national surge of emotion at the murders of 20 children and six women at Sandy Hook Elementary School

Gun control bill hits rick wall in Senate

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/04/s ... 90225.html

A visibly angry President Barack Obama blasted the Senate’s rejection of a bipartisan proposal to expand background checks on gun sales, a vote that essentially ends any hope for major gun control legislation for the time being.

The vote was 54-46, with only four Republicans crossing the aisle and voting with the Democrats in favor of the bipartisan proposal by Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.). Sixty votes were needed.

Several red-state Democrats up for reelection in 2014, including Sens. Max Baucus of Montana, Mark Begich of Alaska and Mark Pryor of Arkansas, voted against it, costing Obama and Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) key support.

Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.), elected to the Senate in November, also voted against the measure.

Four reasons the Senate gun control bill may be kaput

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/DC-Decoder ... y-be-kaput

It's not for lack of trying. President Obama, shooting survivor and former US Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, and parents of Newtown, Conn., shooting victims have worked to drum up support. Vice President Joe Biden has been laboring to salvage the bill, the focus of which is the background-check plan drafted by Sens. Joe Manchin (D) of West Virginia and Patrick Toomey (R) of Pennsylvania.

Here are four reasons the gun bill is unlikely to clear the Senate:

Votes: Quite simply, the votes aren’t there. The gun bill needs 60 votes to pass, and so far the math isn’t adding up.

Waning public support: The window of opportunity is slamming shut fast. That’s according to public opinion polls that show post-Newtown gun control momentum is fading. An April AP-GfK poll shows that a hair less than half of Americans now support stricter gun laws – 49 percent now, compared with 58 percent in January, a month after the December shooting of 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

What’s more, 52 percent of Americans say they disapprove of how Mr. Obama has handled gun laws. You can bet lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are taking note.

The National Rifle Association: You didn’t think the NRA would let this go, did you?

Stakes for individual states: When you pull away from the national conversation and consider the issue from the perspective of individual states – and their senators, some of whom will be up for reelection soon – the lack of support begins to make sense.

So I think the take away lesson from this little vignette is that America shouldn't let emotion rule its decisions on anything...including gun legislation. Senior leaders, including the President, overreached on this one and now the bill will die a slow and quiet death. The Democratic senators were all for such legislation...as long as it didn't endanger their reelection prospects.

The take-away is that this isn't the end of it. This was just Round-1... And we now have SIX states with stronger laws than we did before. The NRA continues to lose power, money and credibility every day. And the 92% of the people that supported Universal Background Checks will ultimately get it.

The majority of Americans that think assault-weapons and high-capacity magazines should be banned or registered will continue to win.

The support is not waning...The frustration with the do-nothing Congress and the GOTP obstructionism is going to come back to haunt the party... And there will be a price to pay... Not this year... But soon...

And now comes Obama's anti 2nd amendment executive orders.

LadyJazzer wrote: The take-away is that this isn't the end of it. This was just Round-1... And we now have SIX states with stronger laws than we did before. The NRA continues to lose power, money and credibility every day. And the 92% of the people that supported Universal Background Checks will ultimately get it.

The majority of Americans that think assault-weapons and high-capacity magazines should be banned or registered will continue to win.

The support is not waning...The frustration with the do-nothing Congress and the GOTP obstructionism is going to come back to haunt the party... And there will be a price to pay... Not this year... But soon...

So what about the obstructionist Democrats in the Senate? Why didn't the Senate get all the Democratic votes on this one and just pass it? Afraid there might be "a price to pay" for infringing on people's Second Amendment rights? Be honest LJ.

"Several red-state Democrats up for reelection in 2014, including Sens. Max Baucus of Montana, Mark Begich of Alaska and Mark Pryor of Arkansas, voted against it, costing Obama and Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) key support.

Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.), elected to the Senate in November, also voted against the measure".

Next the "feel good crowd" will want to ban pressure cookers, ball bearings and BBs.

You keep making decisions driven by your emotion and we will see how this all falls out. American's are figuring out that this legislation is just a knee jerk reaction to some terrible things that happened and will do little, if anything, to keep bad guys from acquiring and using weapons to do bad things. We can chat about it again after the results of the 2014 election are in.