California "citizen's defense league" organization has formed!!!

Announcing The Calguns Foundation


The Calguns Foundation is a California non-profit corporation whose goals are to support the California Firearms Community by promoting education for all stakeholders about California and Federal firearms laws, rights and privileges, defending and protecting the civil rights of California Gun Owners, and supporting the unique public discussion forum at Calguns.net.
The incorporating board members are:

hoffmang, artherd bweise, Ivanimal, Kestryll, and the_quark

To get things moving quickly we’ve chosen to use a smaller board to get up and running. At our initial board meeting in the next couple of weeks we will be expanding the board to 7 to 9 board members. We will also be appointing a list of Honorary Board Members over the next month or so.

We will be applying for 501 (c) (3) charitable organization status with the IRS. What that means for you is that any donations you make before we obtain our status may not be tax deductible but, should we receive our status, we will send you a thank you letter and you can then deduct your then charitable contributions to The Calguns Foundation. Please make sure you mark any donations with your name and an address, email address, or both so that we can send you a thank you for your tax files.

What we’re planning to do:
1. Support Bright Spot Pawn to the extent necessary.
2. Support another FFL who sells off list firearms who the California Department of Justice is unjustly persecuting (more news there shortly)
3. Sponsor the creation and distribution of a legal opinion letter explaining the current state of California firearms laws to DA’s, LEA’s, Judges (Federal and State), and others with proof of service to them.
4. Sponsor the printing of high quality copies of the AW Flow Chart and help distribute them to FFLs, gun clubs, LEAs, DA’s, and others.
5. Generally implement funding and vetting procedures for both offensive and defensive legal cases that are appropriate to protect the civil rights of California gun owners.
6. Assist Kestryll and others in the support of Calguns.net

What we can’t do:
1. Lobby as the Foundation. What Calgunners do on their own time and what is advocated by NRA and others is not legislative activity sponsored by the Calguns Foundation.
2. Make statements in any campaign for a public office.
Calguns Foundation will support the activities and expenses of Calguns.net but we do not own the forum or the domain name. What members of the board of Calguns Foundation post on Calguns.net is not necessarily the opinion of the Calguns Foundation – unless it is marked pretty clearly that it is (kind of like this post.)
3. Defend everyone's firearms related legal trouble. The Calguns Foundation is not your lawyer or your personal legal defense fund. We can't assist in every case and we will certainly not assist cases where the firearms are illegally used, configured, manufactured or possessed or were part of other obviously illegal activity.

Please donate now. Your donations will go to support all the purposes of the Calguns Foundation. Of course the Bright Spot Pawn situation will be a core focus, but we also want to get started on educating DA’s and LEA’s and supporting other legal cases that make sense to the board and the honorary board members.

Until we can get our accounts established please mail checks to:

The Calguns Foundation
c/o The Law Offices of Don Kilmer
1645 Willow Street, Suite 150
San Jose, CA 95125

Please make checks payable to “The Law Offices of Don Kilmer – Client Trust Account” and put “The Calguns Foundation” on the memo line.

As soon as we get our accounts open, Don Kilmer will forward your donations to The Calguns Foundation accounts. We’ll add Paypal shortly (yes we know) and expect to add direct credit card donations in the summer. We’ll also be changing the donation address and name to our own as soon as we complete some formalities and open our accounts.

Our very first order of business is to support Bright Spot Pawn in their situation with the Riverside Sherriff’s office. We have assisted BSP in obtaining counsel with Trutanich • Michel, LLP and I’ve confirmed with both the BSP folks and the TMLLP folks that they are on the case.

To the extent that we raise more than what’s necessary for just BSP, we will be using those funds for other cases that will support the civil rights of California gun owners, dealers, and manufacturers.

Together we can create something that is an effective counter balance to the over-reaches we’ve been seeing in California. We expect to occupy an important niche between the very good work that NRA does on the legislative side and the shooting activities that CRPA implements on the other side.
Please donate early and often. We’re going to be doing even more great things!

-Gene

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I do think such an organization is necessary in California- Provided they are determined to be effectual in a broad spectrum of ownership and carry issues, not just with all things OLL.

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I do think such an organization is necessary in California- Provided they are determined to be effectual in a broad spectrum of ownership and carry issues, not just with all things OLL.

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ConditionThree wrote:

I do think such an organization is necessary in California- Provided they are determined to be effectual in a broad spectrum of ownership and carry issues, not just with all things OLL.

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Quoted For Truth

The Madison Society comes to mind.  It is a great group, but they're extremely focused on the ownership issues.  From the conversations I had with the members I got the feeling that there was basic 'moral' support for carry issues, but that the organization wasn't involved in carry issues.

I don't see any harm in having more organizations.  I still would love to see an organization focused solely on carry issues.

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On March 7, 2008 the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department Jurupa Valley Station Community Action Team, in conjunction with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives executed a weapons violation search warrant at Bright Spot Pawn in Glen Avon. The search was based upon false information that sales of illegal AK-47 “assault weapons” were occurring from the location. After hours of administering the search warrant on Bright Spot Pawn, ten AK-47 style firearms were seized that were alleged to be “assault weapons” in violation of California Law. Seeking attention for the seizure, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department issued a press release announcing that “ten AK-style assault weapons were seized that were in violation of California law.“ The only problem, however, was that the firearms were not “assault weapons.”

Currently, there are three types of “assault weapons.” The first type of “assault weapons” are those identified in the California Penal Code by make and model. The second type of “assault weapons” are those deemed to be “series” type “assault weapons,” essentially firearms identical to the AK-47 or Colt AR-15 model firearms. This vague standard was the subject of much controversy due to the subjective nature of the statute. The ambiguity of whether or not a firearm is a “series” type led the Supreme Court to limit the application of this second category of “assault weapon” laws. In Harrott v. County of Kings, the Supreme Court held that “in order to have any other semiautomatic firearms declared assault weapons within the meaning of section 12276, the Attorney General must utilize the add-on procedure set forth in section 12276.5.” In other words, series type firearms must be listed in the Code of Regulations in order to be deemed “assault weapons.” The third type of “assault weapon” is determined by a generic features test based upon the characteristics of the firearm.

The firearms seized from Bright Spot Pawn were alleged to be “AK-47 style” series “assault weapons.” The firearms seized, however, were not listed. After further investigation of the “assault weapon” laws, the Harrott ruling in hand, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department took the honorable and lawful route of returning the firearms last week – a route not taken often enough by other law enforcement agencies that mis-interpret California’s complex firearm laws.

Bright Spot Pawn is currently working with their lawyers to seek a public retraction of their false statements that ten “assault weapons were seized in violation of California law.” Such false claims have had an impact on the business and reputation of Bright Spot Pawn in the community. Whether the Department will stand-up and correct their baseless claims remains to be seen.

Bright Spot Pawn and Trutanich-Michel, LLP extend their thanks and gratitude for those members of CalGuns.net that supported, both financially and morally, Bright Spot Pawn in their efforts to educate local law enforcement on the issue of "assault weapons" and have their firearms returned.

Jason A. Davis
TRUTANICH - MICHEL, LLP
Attorneys at Law
Los Angeles Office
180 East Ocean Blvd.
Suite 200
Long Beach. California 90802
Phone: (562) 216-4458
Fax: (562) 216-4445
Website: http://www.tmllp.com
Gun law information: http://www.calgunlaws.com

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