California is one of the most anti-gun states in the nation. To hear legislators there talk about it, they’re just following the will of the people. They claim that most Californians want gun control and are happy with whatever new regulation has just been turned into law.
And, frankly, I had no problem believing that. While I know that much of the geographical areas of the state are rural, the number of large urban centers skews the politics severely, and they keep electing anti-gunners to go to Sacramento.
Despite this, though, it seems there are some shenanigans going on with some of the gun bills that have been introduced, and the California Rifle and Pistol Association is calling foul.
Spot bills enable lawmakers to sidestep public input and debate on gun legislation by initially introducing benign placeholders that can be radically altered later in the process. This makes it difficult for gun rights advocates and the general public to effectively engage and have their voices heard on these important policy decisions.
The details
A ‘spot bill’ is a legislative maneuver where lawmakers introduce a bill with minimal or vague content, reserving the ability to later amend it with more substantive – and potentially controversial – provisions. This allows them to bypass the typical legislative process and public scrutiny. CRPA’s Legislative Director Rick Travis explains how spot bills are being used in the current California legislative session to advance gun control measures.
This is shady as hell, but I’m genuinely wondering why they’d feel the need to do this if so many of their constituents are down with this kind of thing. After all, even items that would be considered controversial to you and me are things that we’re told California voters want, so why? Why play a game like this?
Or could it be that they know the voters aren’t as thrilled at some of these ideas as politicians want people to believe, so they have to sneak them in through the back door?
Don’t get me wrong, I still think that most of California’s voters are fine with gun control, but most people who think there should be limits on gun rights aren’t extremists about it, either. The activists and politicians might, but the voters? Not so much. They might support the vague, minimal content on principle, but they won’t like what it morphs into later on in the process, which will escape their notice.
And it’s not like the media has a vested interest in reporting on these things, either. They like gun control, too, and they’re more likely to tend toward the extremist end of the spectrum. They’ll sit on it if they even bother to look in the first place.
For all the talk of democracy by the Democratic Party, the fact that they’re playing games with the legislative process, trying to hide their actions through various forms of shenanigans, illustrates just how little that actually matters to most of them. It also shows that they know the voters aren’t as anti-gun as they want the rest of America to believe.
Editor’s Note: The radical left will stop at nothing to enact their radical gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.
Help us continue to report on and expose the Democrats’ gun control policies and schemes. Join Bearing Arms VIP and use promo code FIGHT to get 60% off your VIP membership.
Read the full article here
