I don’t normally badmouth a community I am a proud member of, actively promote, advocate for, teach in and stand by with my very life and the lives of my family, but today I make an exception. To be fair, I’m not trashing the entire community, just 99 percent of it.
This past week it was announced Veto Gunmaggedon failed to get the required number of signatures to place any of the seven referendums on the 2018 ballot. Obviously, none made the 2017 ballot either. In order to make the ballots, each referendum would have had to obtain 365,000 validated signatures. The referendum with the most signatures got just 174,128 . Out of an estimated 12 million firearm owners in the State of California, that’s a bit over one percent. That is beyond pathetic.
Some warned against this effort saying it was too risky. Indeed it was risky, risky as hell. It was the Hail Mary of all Hail Mary passes, but it was also the only game in town and the right thing to do. Nobody else, not the NRA, CRPA, FPC or anyone else, had anything in the works that would have directly reversed these new anti-lawful firearm owner / pro-gun toting criminal laws. Yet, it still failed.
So why did this fail so miserably? It certainly was not due to the incredible efforts of a lot a dedicated, hard working men and women who gave their time, money and signatures to get this done. These folks, who it seems make up about one percent of California’s lawful firearm owners, are patriots who worked to salvage the rights of all legal firearm owners in the state. It failed because the other 99 percent either believe California’s increasingly oppressive gun control laws are going in the right direction OR, they just don’t give a damn.
While I strongly disagree with them, I understand some firearm owners are also gun control advocates just as the gun control elite are. They have their guns to protect themselves and believe keeping them out of the hands of other people will keep THEM safer. I can even understand the firearm owners who only have shotguns, revolvers or lever actions and think the black rifle crowd is just too dangerous. Nobody needs those military-style “assault weapons”. The laws don’t effect them and will keep THEM safer too. What I can not understand are those who just didn’t give a damn enough to be bothered with going out and signing these petitions.
Not only are these people wrong, they are sacrificing their own safety too. This effort was not about black rifles, standard capacity magazines or ammo background checks, it was about all firearms, all ammunition and the ability of all free men and women to own and use firearms for sport, hunting and to protect themselves & their families.
Here’s what the failure of these initiatives in California will do: The gun control elitists, including the Governor, State Legislature and Courts will all see that they have absolutely nothing to stop them in their quest to rid California of firearms in the hands of private citizens. Who’s going to stop them, the people? The ‘people’ just gave them a mandate to impose every draconian gun control measure they can dream up. And of course, local governments will need to get in on the action and impose their own even more restrictive local laws to show that they care MORE about “safety” than the State does. Who’s going to stop them, the people?
So for all the 99 percent of California firearm owners who don’t believe this will ever impact them, or were just too damn lazy to get off their asses and sign a few pieces of paper, know that at least 174,128 of us are going to be laughing our asses off when they come for YOUR guns and you scream for help. Nobody is going to help you because by then all of us will be laughing our asses off in prison. But hey, the good news is with California’s revolving door justice system, we’ll be out in time to see the trials for those who woke up too late for the party.
Will this be the last we hear from the valiant Veto Gunmageddon sponsors & volunteers? Absolutely not. A lot of lessons were learned from this experience and they have vowed to continue the fight. But with the lack of true support and backing of the state and national firearms groups, it’s anyone’s guess if future efforts will be able to break the apathy barrier in California. Meanwhile, all of this country’s worst gun control laws will begin going into effect on January 1st, 2017. And if you think this year’s legislative session was bad, 2018 is going to make it look like the good ol’ days.
So, I’ll leave you with a few questions: Do you really think it doesn’t matter who you vote for in November? Do you really think it won’t matter who picks the replacements for the next four or five Justices of the United States Supreme Court? Do you really think it doesn’t matter who runs for Governor or any of the State or Federal Representatives? Do you really think it doesn’t matter who runs for your local school board, water board, county board or city council?
Sadly, apathy in the firearm community is going to be the direct cause of everyone in California losing more of their Second Amendment rights and even worse, many innocent people losing their lives. It doesn’t have to be this way, but who’s going to stop them?
Bob
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