PA Bill Number: HB335
Title: In inchoate crimes, further providing for prohibited offensive weapons.
Description: In inchoate crimes, further providing for prohibited offensive weapons. ...
Last Action: Removed from table
Last Action Date: May 1, 2024
3 new, stupid, anti-gun laws and lawyers :: 08/15/2015
Anti-gun laws and personalities are always in the news, but here are three breaking legal moves that have this cop, citizen and gun owner scratching his head at the shear stupidity.
1. The Los Angeles City Council mandates trigger locks
During the first part of August, it was reported that the Los Angeles City Council advanced an ordinance that would require all handgun owners to do something really stupid: keep them in a locked container or fixed with a trigger at all times in the home. Otherwise, misdemeanor.
How stupid is that? I’ll tell you how stupid it is.
It’s like saying, “Hey bad guys, I won’t have anyway to protect myself when you kick in my door because my gun is locked up. I can’t even carry my gun on my hip in a holster in my own home because that would be illegal, so come break in.”
Like a lot of gun laws, this one is just another failure in trust, but how much is institutional trust really a meaningful factor when we are talking about the lives of grown adults who just want to protect themselves? I trust that responsible gun owners will keep their guns out of the reach of children. I know that these people will keep their weapons locked up anyway (though in a manner that allows for quick access to protect themselves). All this lame ordinance does is legally disarms people in their homes and, rather literally, gives criminals the upper hand.
Oh yeah, and the week before they designed this foolish ordinance, the council also vowed to ban “high-capacity gun magazines” (which are already illegal in California).
2. Ohio prosecutor doesn’t understand gun recoil
While trying a police officer who shot someone at the University of Cincinnati, the prosecutor assigned to the case made some real ignorant statements about ballistics. This is what the attorney said of the cop’s actions at the traffic stop:
“He was not dragged. He fell backwards. Maybe from the recoil of the gun.”
What? He fell backwards from the recoil of a handgun? Is that even possible?
It wasn’t a .454 Casull, he wasn’t 50 pounds and, even then, it’s still just a handgun. He wasn’t shooting a M2 .50 cal machine gun.
I believe that this prosecutor watches too many movies. (Though, even Rambo could operate an M60 on full auto without falling backwards. Sheesh.) And I’m pretty sure he’s not a gun guy (and likely not pro-gun either). But, as an agent of the law and an investigator on this case, he should have an understanding of basic physics and how they pertain to modern firearms. Sounds like a clueless, anti-gun lawyer to me—just the type you don’t want.
Honestly, it makes me wonder what other baloney was slung around during that indictment.
3. California governor signs a bill banning grand juries for cops
So here’s the deal as I see it: minority rights groups, a minority legislature and a few judges decide that the grand jury who cleared the police officer in Ferguson, MO, must have been on drugs. This is the myopic view the creators of this new bill took in an effort to be more “fair and transparent” and what brought them to the decision to make a law stripping cops of the right to a grand jury in lethal force incidents.
Conversely, now cops in California won’t be getting “fair treatment” afforded to every other citizen in California. The same grand jury standard that has worked for hundreds of years throughout the US is going by the wayside in the Golden State. (Well, I think the gold is tarnished and full of dross, so it’s more of a greenish hue now.)
This is absurd. Isn’t banning grand juries against the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution? Yes, from the liberal poster-state we get another unconstitutional law. And my guess is that the wacky 9th Circuit Court of Appeals will probably uphold it… if it gets that far.
As a cop and a citizen, I feel police should be tried criminally for their transgressions. In fact, I believe that cops who aren’t justified in the use of force should be punished like anybody else—cops should not be allowed to break or abuse the law and be able to get away with it. But stripping them of the same Constitutional rights granted any citizen of the United States as this new law prescribes to rises to a whole new level of stupidity.
I think that the rights of citizens nationwide are being usurped and it’s beginning in California. If cops aren’t able to do their jobs, if citizens aren’t able to protect themselves, if the law continues to permit ignorance to parade around as expertise into its courts, we are headed toward an anarchy that could soon be rolling into your neighborhood. Do something, say something, and help to stop this madness.
The views and opinions expressed in this post are those of the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the position of Guns.com.
http://www.guns.com/2015/08/15/3-new-stupid-anti-gun-laws-and-lawyers/
