Tuesday, March 5, 2013

California Current Gun Laws Continue Unfunded

In a recent blog I was asked,  Like most of what is touted as needing "reform"; immigration, gun ownership by criminals, database of criminals with mental health issues, and I'm sure you all can think of more, we need simply to enforce and apply the laws we already have. 

In other words what are the current gun laws that are not being enforced? This was the subject of an LA Times Article,  California unable to disarm 19,700 felons and mentally ill people . The article starts out saying California authorities are empowered to seize weapons owned by convicted felons and people with mental illness, but staff shortages and funding cuts have left a backlog of more than 19,700 people to disarm, a law enforcement official said Tuesday.

The article goes on to say, that in California alone, there is a 3 year year back log on simply entering the names of felons and the mentally ill that should be ineligible to posses or acquire firearms and tracking down the 19,700 known felons and mentally ill that own or have acquired some 39,000 firearms and need to be disarmed but haven't been; this is blamed on a lack of funding and there are some 3,000 names being added to the list every year.

One is therefore forced to ask why is there little political pressure for more funding of these exsisting laws rather than the likes of Diane Fienstein pushing for another Federal Assault Weapons and large capacity magazine ban? California already has such a ban, but according to FBI and DOJ studies, their use in crimes is statistically insignificant as the vast majority of guns crimes are committed with handguns. So rather than really make the citizenry safe by taking guns away from felons and the mentally ill, all the political will is to ban weapons from law abiding citizens.  The idea that we need gun and magazine bans, rather than fully fund the laws we have now is ridiculous; in California even at gun shows all buyers must have a back ground check and guns must be transferred through a registered gun dealer, but the DOJ returns are so slow many guns are sold to those that are prohibited to buy because the dealers are not advised within the waiting period). California already has all the gun control being asked for by President Obama and more, but we aren't funding it. One has to wonder what the real end game is..

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