I watched in shock as this insanely vague legislation rolled right through the CA legislature with relatively little fanfare.  Publicity was nominal, although of course the gun rights organizations were in vocal opposition.  When I mention the looming ban to hunting friends and associates, few even knew it had happened.  “Too late now, I thought.”

But maybe not too late after all!  In a ruling yesterday, a Superior Court judge in Fresno found the law unconstitutionally vague, and the court enjoined enforcement of the statute.  At least for now, you will still be able to order ammo via the Internet or mail order catalogue.  However, I’d strongly recommend getting involved in the push to completely overturn this law and others like it that are sure to follow. 

You can read more about it on the California Rifle and Pistol Association (CRPA) website.  While you’re there, if you’re not already a member, that’s a great time to read more about what this organization is doing and maybe even join up.  While they do occasionally employ some of the rhetoric of the NRA, they’re more focused on CA issues and providing a voice for CA hunters and gun owners alike.

In short, this bill is designed to curb handgun violence by requiring anyone purchasing handgun ammo in CA to submit a thumbprint and other identifying data.  It also restricts mail-order handgun ammunition sales (e.g. Cabelas, MidwayUSA) by requiring ammo to be shipped to a dealer so that the appropriate registration process can be performed. 

I’ve been quiet on this one, and maybe by doing so I’ve done all of you readers a serious disservice.  Maybe I should have been up on the rooftops yelling about it, in the same way I did about the lead ban.  I could have done more, perhaps, to mobilize hunters and gun owners to get their voices heard early and often as this thing went through the process. 

I’d beg pardon on the excuse that I honestly never thought the bill would get through the Assembly, much less through the Senate.  But it did, and now, as you know if you ever watched Schoolhouse Rock, it’s on the Governor’s desk to either be signed into law or vetoed and sent back down.

I also tend to stay away from the general fray of the gun rights fight.  There are other sites much more adept at this battle, and individuals who are much more deeply involved at all the levels.  I throw my support their way, both in the way of membership in certain gun rights organizations, and by making my voice heard to my legislators and the Governor.  But I seldom use this blog to echo the messages sent to my by the NSSF, NRA, CRPA, or others.

But after some thought, I felt that maybe I should feel more “duty bound” to step up on the stump and yell about this one, in particular.  The implications of AB962 go so much further than some folks seem to recognize, not to mention the pure senseless nature of the legislation. 

Here are some thoughts that I’ve been thinking… 

It will not reduce crime. 

Face it.  This state already has some fairly draconian firearms laws that are intended to restrict access to guns, yet the gangbangers remain quite well-armed.  Straw-man purchases, theft, and black-market transactions sidestep existing legislation.  Criminals are not deterred by legal barriers… that’s what makes them criminals!  If I were going out to do a drive-by on some rival gang, I’m sure as hell not gonna be worried about whether or not my “assault rifle” is registered with the Attorney General’s office. 

Restricting access to bullets will be even more ineffective, in large part because a murderer simply doesn’t require a huge stockpile of ammo… not even a whole box.  Even given the “spray and pray” shooting that is so often attributed to gang shootings, a single box of ammo goes a long ways. Maybe (doubtfully) the new rules will result in a little less urban plinking practice, but they’re not likely to slow down the crime rate.  It doesn’t even make sense.

Consider that, in 2007, the City of Los Angeles reported somewhere in the neighborhood of 400 homicides for the whole year.  Even if we attribute 75% of those to handguns, and argue that each killing took an average of five bullets, that’s about 75 boxes of handgun ammunition (at 20 rounds per box)… less than eight cases of ammo (10 boxes per case) for the entire year!  This law is somehow supposed to put a dent in that?  That’s like trying to crush a straight pin with a 16-pound sledge hammer! 

Regardless of that, though… how hard will it be under the new law, even with the thumbprint requirement, for a gangbanger to get enough ammo to commit a crime?  If the straw man scenario wasn’t common enough for the purchase of firearms, it’ll be ten times as common for ammo, where the buyer doesn’t even have to pass a background check.  And if they can’t find someone to buy for them (supposing that they’re prohibited in the first place), there’s nothing stopping the individual from hopping in the car and driving across the state lines and buying as much ammo as the car can carry! 

On the other hand, AB962 will only make life harder on those of us who try to abide by the law. 

It will place a further, significant burden on businesses that serve local gun owners and hunters, with additional paperwork and regulatory requirements.  They’ll have to buy another license to sell handgun ammo, and pay for background checks on all of their employees.  At the same time, they’ll be watching as customers choose to drive a couple of hours across state lines to buy ammo rather than submit to monitoring by The State. 

(I also wonder, since the law makes it illegal to sell to a gang member or convicted felon, yet provides no way for the vendor to know if the customer is prohibited… what will this mean to black or Hispanic gun owners when they stop in to buy a box of rounds?)

As a hunter and gun owner, it’s already become pretty difficult to find certain kinds of handgun ammo.  The calibers most commonly used by the military and law enforcement (9mm, .357mag, .38spl, .40S&W, .45acp, etc.) are scarce on the shelves, and without mail order sources, many shooters would have a very hard time indeed finding ammo.  Copper ammo for handguns is even harder to find, and hunters in the condor zone are already scraping the widest reaches of the Internet to find sources of lead-free hunting ammo.  Banning the direct mail-order trade of handgun ammunition will put all of us in a bind. 

And of course, the way around that is to simply drive to Nevada or Arizona and stock up. 

What’s worse is that AB962 extends not only to loaded cartridges, but to reloading components as well!  I mean, honestly, how many gangbangers are out there, bulk-loading for their spray and pray shooting sprees?  Yet I can tell you that, especially when it comes to lead-free, I have no choice but to order my bullets from out of state sources.  The local Big-5 and the mom-n-pop shops just don’t have what I need. 

Of course, you will still be able order through the mail or Internet and have your order shipped to a licensed dealer.  That’s a solution, right?  Except not…  the licensed dealer has got to offset his costs, and it will only make sense that he’s gonna charge you for the service.  So now you’ll pay Cabelas for your order and shipping, then turn around and pay your local guy an additional fee to deliver. 

AB962 is just stupid.  At best, it’s a really, poorly designed, but well-intentioned effort to curb crime.   But at its worst, it’s a backdoor method to drive gun and ammo business out of this state… and the hunters and recreational shooters with it.  Intentional or not, that’s likely to be the result if this bill becomes law.

It’s almost too late, but there’s still time to get a message to Governor Schwarzenegger and asking him to veto this bill.  http://gov.ca.gov/interact#contact

• It’s a plot by the industry to jack up prices.
• It’s a backdoor plot by the Obama administration to make ammo hard to get
• It’s a plot by the Chinese to buy up all the raw materials so we can’t defend ourselves
• It’s a plot by the NRA to incite panic and increase membership

Personally, I find this kind of thing both sad and laughable. It’s amazing the lengths we’ll go to in order to explain something we don’t understand.  It’s also a great example of the pervasive nature of meme theory (an idea is planted in the collective mind, and is passed along, mutating and evolving just like genetic material).  But let’s not get too esoteric here… the point is that a meme usually has to have, at least, a basis in fact to take root.

The reality of the ammo shortage is complex and serious, but probably not quite as sinister as it’s been made out to be. 

It’s not a new issue, as there have been reports about shortages since shortly after 9/11, Afghanistan, and the second invasion of Iraq.  Between training and combat, the troops are using an awful lot of powder, primers, brass, copper, and lead.  Stateside law enforcement was the first population hit by the shortage, in large part because they use many of the same weapons as the military.  Ammo supplies for training have been cut significantly in many places.

In addition to the supplies to support the war, raw materials have been in high demand overseas, particularly in China.  While most western economies were crashing, China’s economy stayed stable enough so that they could afford to buy copper, lead, and other key materials that would typically be used by the ammo industry.  Supply and demand… short supply means higher prices.  When higher prices don’t reduce demand, supply runs even shorter. 

There certainly has been a marked increase in sales of both guns and ammo since the Obama administration took over, and I DO believe that’s the result of an orchestrated propaganda campaign by both the NSSF and NRA.  See?  I’m not immune to a little conspiracy thinking myself.  But in this case, I think the facts bear me out.  The frenzy was driven to fever pitch… “the liberals are going to take your guns,” and in this atmosphere of distrust and fear, the cultural psyche is fertile ground for such paranoid rhetoric. 

The question, I suppose, is whether or not the propaganda is well-intentioned (someone really cares about Second Amendment Rights) or if it’s really a clever marketing campaign.  Cynical of me, but an honest question nonetheless. 

Regardless the causes, there does appear to be a very real shortage of ammunition, and ammunition components right now.  Recreational shooters and hunters are now seeing the shortages, although we’ve actually been paying more for ammo for several years now.  I’m hearing over and over from folks now who are having trouble finding ammo for practice, and even for hunting.  Personally, I haven’t seen it yet.  I picked up a couple of boxes of .243 ammo prior to my Texas hunt without a problem, and I’m pretty well stocked for my other guns. 

Which leads to my question to all of you… are you having a hard time finding ammo, or reloading components?

So anyway, I checked in yesterday and saw this sucker! 

That’s right, it’s real. 

Chambered in .600 Nitro Express, this is truly a hand-cannon!  It’s created by the Austrian company, Pfiefer Waffen, and can actually be purchased if you have about $16,000 dollars laying around.  Actually, that price is a bit cheaper than some double rifles in the same caliber, so I suppose it’s quite a bargain. 

Fully suited for anything from REALLY big hogs to brontosaurus, it’s a revolver fit to make Dirty Harry drool in envy.  If you should see one and get a chance to shoot it, odds are it will make you drool too… brain damage can do that to a person.  Personally, the S&W .500 was as much handgun as I ever care to shoot, so you can have at it. 

Apparently this thing is also available in .458 Winchester, for the less manly masochist. 

So, should you choose to run out and pick one of these things up, let me know.  I’d love to hear about it… from a great distance.

In the meantime, I’m still daydreaming about this beauty from the SHOT Show a few years back.

Speaking of the SHOT Show, only eight more days until the Media Day at the Range where I’ll have the opportunity to put my grubby hands on all kinds of more traditional firearms.  If there’s anything new out there you’d like me to check out, let me know!   I will, for sure, be looking at all of the new offerings from Winchester, Browning, Sako, Beretta, and probably Smith and Wesson (I LOVE their Elite Gold double-barrel). 

I’m also hoping to get my hands on the new bolt actions from Mossberg and Marlin, as they should be the perfect thing for the economy-minded hunter. 

So sing out, and let me know if you want me to check out anything in particular.

Personally, while I think its a good deal that the decision came down on the side of reason, I don’t think it was quite the victory the gun rights crowd was hoping for.  What surprised me more than anything was the blatant retort from the dissenting Justices who, in essence, argued that there’s no such thing as an individual right to bear arms.  I expected some kind of wrangling about the “greater good” and public interest, but not for any of them to come right out and say that the American People have no right to arm themselves in self-defense. 

Anyway, it’s not over yet.  There’s still a lot of room open for firearm restrictions.  They’ll just have to be tailored against the letter of the law as it was just defined.  A roomful of lawyers can handle that well enough, and you can be sure they will… and the fight will go on and on. 

Anyway, unless something truly big comes down the pike on this issue, I’ll leave discussion of this topic to those more inclined, such as Tom Remington over at the Black Bear Blog.  Tom’s right on top of this, and just wrote a really nicely done post regarding the implications of the decision, as well as a great summary of the justification provided by Justice Scalia. 

In the meantime, I’m all for staying involved at all levels (and I do), but as far as the Hog Blog goes, we’re gonna focus on keeping an eye on the small stuff, like the lead ban and hog hunting legislation.