If you’re a shooter or hunter still living in California or Washington, today’s the first day of a new reality for you. In California, new ammunition regulations go into effect, meaning that you’ll be paying more for ammunition. How much depends on whether or not you’re already in the state’s REAL ID system. If you are, it’s a dollar additional charge; if you’re not, it’s a $19 additional cost.
That’s not all. It’s uncertain whether non-residents (including hunters and competitive shooters) can buy ammunition in the state at all or not, and everyone is banned from bringing ammunition into the state. When you add those new restrictions to the fact that you can no longer use lead ammunition for hunting, it’s looking as if there’s a de facto ban on law-abiding citizens possessing firearms. After all, an unloaded gun is a pretty ineffective tool for virtually anything.
The first hunters to be affected will be rabbit hunters. Their season opens today. Deer hunters in California Zone A will be next- their season opens August 10.
No word from California Department of Fish & Game as to whether they’ll begin by issuing warnings or citations. But it’s unlikely there will be much leniency shown.
In Washington, the still going-to-be- contested-in-the-courts gun controls of I-1639 go into effect today, and they’re guaranteed to cause the state’s firearms retailers major headaches.
I-1639 brings all manner of new compliance requirements: new age restrictions, “enhanced” background checks, training requirements, longer waiting periods, new storage requirements, a prohibition on private sales, and introduces new firearms purchasing fees. That (of course) means a new transfer form - and $25 fee- for semiautomatic rifles. There’s a similar form requirement for handguns, but no transfer fee.
Anti-gun politicians have no shortage of (bad) ideas when it comes to “common sense gun safety” -their latest euphemism for “confiscation.”
But the Democratic debates last week made it patently obvious to even the most die-hard Democratic hunter/shooter that the instant “their party” gains majority control of the federal government, the disarmament of the citizenry will get going.
From Michael Bennett to Andrew Yang, each of the candidates clamoring for support in their battle to defeat President Trump has pledged - at the very least- to push for more “common sense gun reforms”.
Some, like Yang, who suggests levels of firearm ownership similar to competencies like pilots’ licenses, don’t volunteer the fact that the end game would eliminate private gun ownership entirely. Others include the usual litany of “reasonable steps” they’d take to prevent gun violence: red flag laws, mandated waiting periods, licensing firearms, owners, or both.
Out of all the comments in the debate, however, there was a single comment that may have accidentally gone to the very heart of the Democratic party’s feelings about firearms.
“We should have smart guns,” says Joe Biden, “No gun should be able to be sold unless your biometric measure could pull the trigger.”
He wasn’t done. “It’s within our right to do that,” he said “We can do that. Our enemy is the gun manufacturers, not the National Rifle Association.”
OK, I added the emphasis, but the political intent and experience is there.
While you may question the former Vice President’s acumen on plenty of topics, there’s no doubt he’s a seasoned politician.
With a single sentence, Biden acknowledged the fact the Democratic Party is at war with guns (a message to the most adamant anti-gunners in the party) while simultaneously sending undecided or gun-owning voters the message “our fight’s not with you- it’s with the gun makers who won’t include this gee-whiz technology”.
It’s a long-standing political technique. When you’re trying to push something on people they might not like individually, it’s far simpler to sell them on the idea of punishing a faceless entity.
Hopefully, everyone in the industry- including those companies still entrenched in the areas where anti-gun sentiments are the norm, not the exception, will realize there’s no doubting the truth of what Biden’s said. Progressives view guns, gun companies, and, yes, gun owners, as the enemy- and they’re out to win that battle- hopefully, before the other side completely absorbs the fact it’s an ideological fight to the death.
Every hunter, shooter, gun owner or believer in the right to own guns-or not, news to wake up.
Progressives don’t view anything as a right. To them, everything is a privilege. And those privileges are granted and subject to revocation at the whim of the same government.
As the founding fathers knew when they described a federal government that was never designed to grow into a bloated, overarching monstrosity, the government big enough to give you whatever you want is big enough to take away everything you have.
—Jim Shepherd