California AB50

[WERA49]

Gun Owners of California
7996 California Avenue Ste F
Fair Oaks, CA 95628
916 967-4970 Fax 916 967-4974
www.gunownersca.com

ALERT!

AB 50 Koretz (D) Literally resurrected from the dead, here again is the bill that targets .50 Caliber BMG rifles for banning.
California law bans a variety of firearms that are deemed "dangerous weapons". This bill would extend those laws to include any .50 BMG rifle and cartridge.

This is the bill that won't go away. Determination by the author and the dedicated anti-gunners have kept it going when other bills would have died.

Re-activated for consideration 3 days before it expired was an effective way to squelch the pro-gun opposition and the outpouring of mail, faxes and phone calls in opposition to the bill.

Aug./4/04 AB 50 was put in Suspense in the Senate Appropriations Committe. Reason given was cost to the state. Bills are considered dead when put into the suspense file most of the time.
Aug. 12,AB 50 was taken out of suspense file, and the Senate Appropriations Committee passed the bill out to the Senate.
Aug/24/04 Bill passed Senate and went back to the Assembly Concurrence for a vote. This is the committee that reconciles the differences between the Assembly and the Senate.

Today, Aug. 25, AB 50 passed out of the Assembly on a 41 - 31 vote with 8 members not voting. Not Voting is as good as a 'no' vote and is used by those who do not want their name on record.

Now is the time to address your opposition to the Governor. We encourage politeness when writing, calling or faxing. We encourage thoughtful and intelligent remarks, supported with facts and reason. As of now, this Governor is untried as far as his position or view on firearms. As firearms owners, we urge everyone to sound respectful in voicing opposition. Having said that, opposition must be voiced strongly and immediately.

Talking Points from GOC's position of opposition:

No crime has ever been committed or attempted in California with a .50 BMG caliber rifle even though these types of rifles have been around since the end of WWII.

These rifles were designed and built by civilians for civilian use. It was the military who found a practical use for these guns and they then adopted several models for their use.

AB 50 bans only BOLT-ACTION and SINGLE-SHOT rifles because all semi-auto .50 BMG's are already banned under California's so-called "Assault Weapons Ban."

If you have your own talking points obviously use them either as an addition, or instead of those written here.

Address letter:

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
State Capitol
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: (916) 445-2841
(916) 445-4633 fax

governor@governor.ca.gov
http://www.governor.ca.gov/

We do not recommend emails as they are automatically responded to and you do not really know if they are logged into the file.

[glockophile]

All of these bills are efforts to whittle away. They can't come out with a bill saying "let's ban anything that involves gunpowder, a bullet and a tube" so they come out with a series of things. We'll ban thumbhole stocks, and 50bmg bolts. Then when that's done, we'll move on to other things. Who knows what they will think of. Feinstein at one point wanted to ban handguns with a bore diameter of .45", which would have just gotten 45 acp. Not that she cares about that; she just wants to gone step at a time. Once that is done, they'll ban handguns with polymer frames, or adjustable sights, or fixed sights, or night sights, or that cost too much or cost too little. They won't stop until the only kind of guns we can buy are called "airsoft".

That's why the machinegun ban in 1986 was a defeat for all gun owners, and we should be trying to get it repealed. They start with the machinegun ban because so few gun owners own machineguns. Then they move on to "assault weapons".

Either contact your representatives, where ever you are, and send letters routinely, or start getting comfortable with the idea of airsofts and bows instead of guns.

I think it is EXTRA important for gun owners who are constituents of Feinstein and company to contact them. A lot of people use the logic that "I'm in California, we know how Feinstein votes, why even bother writing her a letter?" This is wrong. It's extremely important to contact people like her so that they realize that they are the ones on the fringe, outside of the mainstream. Then they might take up other issues for their little pet projects.

We know that none of this has a thing to do with stopping crime, and they know it too. They need to hear from us, especially the confirmed true-believer "antis".

I'm going to send a letter to the author of this bill, tonight.