In addition to being hampered by the California Handgun Roster that I outlined in my Monday post, another source of frustration for us can be attempting to buy firearms and accessories from online vendors, out of state FFL,s, and auction sites like gunbroker.com. Many online retailers will not ship anything firearm related to California, and while shopping on gunbroker.com, many sellers make it very clear that they will not ship anything to California, often making snide comments about those of us living here. One of the last ones I saw from an FFL from Texas was: “No sales to California until you guys get your heads out of your asses and vote out the gungrabbers.”.
Now, I am all for business owners to do business how, and with whom they wish. In fact, I understand why many vendors do not wish to do business with Californians. As I write this, a California friendly firearms accessories company, Exile Machine LLC, is fighting a lawsuit by the city of San Francisco for selling magazine parts kits, which are fully within California law for citizens to purchase. What disappoints me, are the attitudes shown by gun owners in other states towards those of us in states like California and Maryland, who are fighting these unconstitutional laws. If it was simply a matter of California gun owners voting against the politicians who pass these laws, we wouldn’t be in this situation. California has more gun owners than many states have residents. However, we are still a minority in our own state. In 2012, California placed 44th in NICS background checks for gun purchases per capita, with 3,611 per 100,000, while Utah was 2nd with 46,898 per 100,000. Interestingly, the total number of NICS checks in 2012 was almost the same for both states, but with a higher representation as a percentage of the total population, gun owners in Utah have more power than gun owners in California.
So why should gun owners in Texas, or any other state, care about the fight that gun owners in California are waging? If you look at states whose legislatures are dominated by large population centers, they are the ones with the most restrictive gun laws. In my opinion, any state which has around half of it’s population centered around large cities is at risk for a future that looks a lot like California, due to those areas voting overwhelmingly Democrat. Now granted, a California Democrat is a breed all of it’s own, but Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley has already stated that he would like to model Maryland’s gun laws after the ones in California.
So what does this mean for Texas? Well, between 2000-2010, Texas added more residents than any other state. 88% of those new residents were Hispanic, Black or Asian, groups that overwhelmingly voted for Obama. 8 of the 15 fastest growing cities in America are in Texas. Texas’ largest population centers, Dallas, Houston, Austin and San Antonio voted for Obama. See a trend? Texas is on a path similar to what happened in California. From 1952-1988 California was a pretty reliable red state, voting for a Democratic presidential candidate only once in that time frame, LBJ in 1964. Fast forward to Clinton in 1992, California has been solid blue ever since. If the GOP can’t attract the Hispanic vote, it’s only a matter of time before Texas turns blue, with 2024 being a mark that many statistics show that Texas becomes a swing state.
Some may argue that Texas has a very different culture than California does, and even if it went blue, would never restrict gun ownership in the way that California does. To them I say, reread the above paragraph. The people that are changing the demographics of Texas, aren’t native Texans. They are outsiders, both legal and illegal. Many of the long time residents of California have told me that the beginning of the change in attitudes about guns in California was the tech boom of the 1960’s, which brought hundreds of thousands of people from outside the state to Northern California.
So what can we do? We fight. The people of Colorado are a shining example of the power of the people. We get more people into shooting for both sport and defense. I’ve yet to see a first time shooter leaving the range unhappy. We find allies. Gun owners aren’t just old white men. Minorities own guns, women own guns, homosexuals own guns, atheists own guns. Most importantly, gun owners need to be united. In California, many hunters didn’t care that “Assault Weapons” were banned, as long as their hunting rifles weren’t affected. Likewise, many non-hunters didn’t care about about our recent ban on lead ammo for hunting. We need a united front.
In closing, instead of ridiculing and showing disdain for gun owners behind the velvet curtain in states like California, Maryland and Massachusetts, think of us more like the men manning the walls of the castle. We may be taking some heavy losses, but if we surrender, those inside are at the mercy of the invading hordes.
Uncle Thomas 