My dogs and I take hikes on our sandy roads while trying not to explore exactly the same route twice. From my front porch I can watch the sun peek above Goat Mountain and then slip beneath the San Bernardino Mountains each evening. The night is the most spectacular event of the day with the light show above and the darkness that surrounds our little world. The barking dogs in the neighborhood give us the security necessary to avoid those nasty street lights of the civilized world. We have said good bye to that world in exchange for the wild, wild, west character of our small community.
The good fortune that we enjoy in Landers is being threatened again by our politicians. The legislature has passed AB 1014 and it sits on the governors desk awaiting his signature by September 30. This legislation is an addition to present gun law and is called “the gun violence restraining order”. Anyone would be able to report to the police any legal gun owner that they deemed a danger to themselves or to others. A judge, without evidence, a hearing, representing attorneys or a trial, can order the police to remove the legal gun, or guns, from the possession of the legal gun owner for up to a year and the removal can be renewed indefinitely. This “hear say” persecution of the gun owner is a clear violation of the Second Amendment given to us by the U.S. Constitution and every legal gun owner is at risk of being harassed by such an order.
Everyone in Landers has a gun including the elderly ladies. A gun is the last means of home defense when an emergency call to the sheriff means a thirty minute response time. How long does it take to break in the front door? We are not a wealthy community which is regularly subjected to this type of crime but we have our crime risks and having a gun in the house is a deterrent. Our politicians are not at all concerned about the safety of you and I, only how they can score a few public relation points by doing something even if that something is boneheaded.
Our legislature is reacting to the killings in Isla Vista, California in May of this year. While the weapons of Elliot Rodgers were registered and legal they were also recently purchased. Mr. Rodgers was a 22 year old student who experienced a schizophrenic break with reality killing six and wounding 13. No one saw this coming, not his family and he got close enough to kill his first three victims, his roommates, with a knife. This mental disorder occurs most regularly with young men at this age but not in the general population. Would it not be a more sane public policy to delay legal gun sales to men in this age group than to over regulate the vast majority of gun owners?
Every legal gun owner in California should be on the phone now to express your displeasure with this new regulation, Governor Brown please do not sign AB 1014. The Governor can be reached at 916-445-2841 or fax 916-558-3160. Thank you.
G.Goslaw
Landers
