Stuff happens! Over a year ago California passed a particularly onerous,
badly written, confusing, and draconian piece of legislative excrement
intended to be an assault weapons enhancement. SB23, although written by
Handgun Control Inc. was "authored" by State Sen. Don Perata (a
man of dubious intellect and less character).
In an effort to slow down or stop the bad law I formed a grassroots
organization, VetoTheGovernor.org
with the hope to collect sufficient signatures on an Initiative petition
to referendum the law. In California, even if a bill passes the
legislative process and is signed by the governor, the law can still be
put to a vote of the people. If qualified for the ballot and rejected by
the people, the law is nullified.
We failed to collect the requisite number of signatures (although we
did collect over 350,000) but we did (almost by accident) create an
extraordinary network of grassroots defenders of the Second Amendment. I
had, previous to our effort, met an attorney who also wanted to try a
gun-rights initiative, Donald J. Kilmer. Don and I eventually agreed to
join forces and use the new grassroots network in an attempt to qualify a
Right To Keep and Bear Arms Constitutional Amendment for the ballot.
California's Constitution does not have language consistent with the
Second Amendment (but that is another story). Don worked with a remarkable
collection of lawyers and came up with simple
concise language.
Liberal icon and Harvard Law Professor Laurence Tribe experienced an
epiphany last year and now acknowledges the Second Amendment is an individual
right and not a collective right enjoyed just by militias. Also the
controversial "Emerson" case (which is still in the 2nd Circuit
Appeals Court) may well result in the Supreme Court no longer being able
to dodge the bullet (no pun intended) of ruling on the Second Amendment. I
believed when we started -- what was suggested as "tilting at
windmills" -- that the year 2000 would be significant gun rights
battleground.
Oddly enough, the institutional gun rights groups (NRA and GOA) were
less than enthused with our efforts. Their reaction was "Don't make
waves. ... Concentrate on getting good conservative Republicans
elected." That refrain was and is confusing. Personally if I have a
choice between supporting a whoosy, Republican intent on pressing for
enforcement of unconstitutional bad law or a blue dog Democrat who is a
2nd Amendment absolutist, the collaborating Republican can kiss my
Airborne fourth point of contact.
Now, I read in Christopher Wilson's Reuters piece, "Calling
President Clinton's administration 'the most anti-gun White House in
history,' the National Rifle Association vowed to run a barrage of
television advertisements blasting Democrats at their party convention for
trying to erode Americans' right to bear arms." This is the same
organization that not only refused to help our efforts in California with
even simple mailings or ads in their publications, but also actively
worked to silence us.
Wilson writes, "The NRA, one of the most powerful lobbies in U.S.
politics, has made no secret of its anger at Democrats' efforts to enact
even modest gun-control laws and said on Thursday the TV ads would begin
running this weekend and continue through the Democratic convention in Los
Angeles next week." This is the same organization that didn't want
our California efforts creating an atmosphere in which Republicans would
be compelled to have to speak about guns.
Although I am a staunch defender of the Bill of Rights, the NRA is
annoyed with me for failing to be a good little "do-bee" and
kissing the ring (or derriere) of the "Puzzle Palace Poobahs" in
Arlington. I love my country and have sworn always to defend it
("against all enemies, foreign and domestic") but hate this
administration. I love the principles the NRA allegedly stands for, but I
hate the politicized, homogenized, policies of "Wayne's wonks."
When the California Legislative Analyst reviewed the language of our
amendment there were some compelling perils that I
encourage you to read about. Perhaps the most amazing was the official
validation of the statistical research of Yale
Law School senior research fellow John Lott.
Last year when I still had hat in hand begging favor of the NRA, I told
them guns would be a wedge issue in 2000. I was patted on the head and
told to let the big boys handle it. So I was both amused and annoyed to
read, "I think it's going to be a big wedge issue in this election,''
according to NRA spokesman Bill Powers. "I think the water is
starting to boil out there in Middle America and that's going to make it
very hot for the Gore campaign.''
I have often observed the gun rights community is a very dysfunctional
family. We all claim the same primary goals and objectives, but it is
routinely fascinating that egos, territorial imperatives, tangential, off
topic agendas can and have succeeded in keeping us a house divided.
During our last initiative effort I was driving to an event and heard a
song that brought tears to my eyes and energized me to not give up the
fight. When I returned home I rushed out and bought the CD and listened to
one cut over and over again to reinforce the burning belief that
"Right is might" -- or it can be if you have the courage of your
convictions. Pat Flynn wrote the words; Garth Brooks sings them:
Sometimes you've got to take the heat / if you're going to walk out on
the main street / and you see it through / 'cause sometimes it comes
down to: Do what ya gotta do.
Sometimes it goes right down to the wire / and you might have to walk
through the fire / Sometimes it just comes down to: Do what ya gotta do.
Well there are people who will tell you, it's just no use / and there
are people who will tell you that you're gonna lose / people that will
tell you anything you're gonna listen to / Do what you gotta do!
Someday they're gonna call your name / They'll come looking for
someone to blame / What's your name, boy? / You just tell them true /
'cause they can't take the truth from you / so do what you gotta do
Well they call you a hero or a traitor / but you'll find out sooner
or later / nobody in this world is going to do it for you / Do what you
gotta do!
We failed in our effort to referendum the Perata/HCI assault weapons law.
We failed in our effort to qualify the RKBA amendment for the ballot, last
time. However, next time (and yes that next time is coming soon) we will
not fail. We have been blessed with an extraordinarily dedicated
collection of grassroots activists from San Diego to the Oregon border.
Now we are putting together a coalition of other like-minded defenders of
the Constitution who have agreed to focus on the common objective of
qualifying our amendment for the ballot and together we will "Do what
you gotta do."