OPINION
Yesterday something occurred that warmed my heart; it really did. I was chatting online with my half-brother who lives in Los Angeles and he showed me his “concealed carry permit” which he had collected from the Sheriff’s department. I was overjoyed at this example of freedom in action. Then his mother (one of my numerous former stepmothers) barged into the conversation, sending us her “best Christmas wishes” which dropped the temperature somewhat.
(As an amusing aside, in 1983 one of my father’s various wives – number 7 or 8 or something – tragically died. He then returned to the US and 15 minutes later, clearly having overcome his “grief”, married this dreadful woman in Las Vegas where she’d been working as a tart. Oops, I mean “cocktail waitress”. Eventually, they had a child, the half-brother I was chatting to last night, to whom I’m actually fairly close.)
Anyhoo, the State of California had a notorious reputation for some of the most restrictive gun laws in America; various left-wing politicians had imposed all sorts of regulations over the years so that only gangsters and other criminals could be armed. All that changed on June 22nd when the Supreme Court handed down New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen.
In America, if you want to carry a handgun outside of your residence you require what is known as a ‘concealed carry permit’. In most states – forty three – these were akin to getting a library card: a formality. You undertake a gun safety course and weapons training, a criminal record check, and the permit is issued. These states were known as “shall issue” states, i.e. the authorities shall issue you a permit without much fuss. But in the other seven states, such as California, there was a “may issue” requirement; in short, you had to show a reason why you needed to carry a gun. Back in June the Supreme Court ruled this was unconstitutional and required all jurisdictions to stop that commie nonsense immediately.
As the Court clearly said in a previous 2nd Amendment case in 2008 you shouldn’t have to justify gun ownership – it’s nobody’s damn business why you want to own guns!
Oh to have been a fly on the wall when the communist Attorney-General of California, Rob Bonta, had to send a directive to every county sheriff and Police chief in the state, telling them to comply with the ruling and become “shall issue” for concealed carry permits. It would be similar to the situation if Mahuta had to personally dismantle “18 Waters”: hilarious!
So my half-brother, along with other patriotic red-blooded conservatives in Los Angeles, trotted down to the LA County Sheriff’s department and applied for his permit. There are still a few requirements to comply with that don’t exist in most states, but the “Big Picture” is that the good guys in Southern California can now easily get concealed carry permits and carry handguns with them as they go about their business, providing them with protection against carjackers, scumbags, and evil-doers.
It really is a marvellous victory for freedom over tyranny; of the good guys winning. Hopefully, it sees the crime rate in California begin to fall as criminals get the message that people may well be fighting back, may be protecting themselves and aren’t going to be victims of crime.