It's time we declare war on AB 1934

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Since we've lost a couple of battles thus far in the war to prevent AB 1934 from going into effect, I propose that we initiate an all-out war to win the hearts and minds of the people of this great state. If we each can write one good letter discussing the ridiculousness that is AB 1934, we can send our letters to every newspaper in this state to be printed as a letter to the editor. Thus far, the media has been quite interested in open carry, so we have little reason to believe that they will reject a letter from a person who open carries who feels passionately about our rights and freedoms.

If you live in the area where one of the below newspapers is distributed, consider sitting down for an hour and writing up a passionate, well-written letter to send in. Feel free to post any drafts here prior to sending it in for any spelling/grammar/argument improvements.

Please always include your name, address, and phone number when submitting a letter to the editor as most newspapers will want to contact you prior to publication. Here is a brief article on what newspapers look for in a letter: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/submissions/diaznotes.dtl

Email/web addresses have been verified. Fax numbers and physical addresses have not.

Antelope Valley Press
44939 10th Street, West
Lancaster, CA 93537
Fax: 661-947-4870
letters@avpress.com

Bakersfield Californian
PO Box 440
Bakersfield, CA 93302
Fax: 661-395-7380
opinion@bakersfield.com

Chico Enterprise Record
PO Box 9
Chico, CA 95927
Fax: 530-342-3617
letters@chicoer.com
(fewer than 250 words)
http://www.chicoer.com/letters

Contra Costa Times
PO Box 5088
Walnut Creek, CA 94596
Fax: 925-933-0239
ccnletters@bayareanewsgroup.com
(fewer than 200 words)
http://www.contracostatimes.com/letters

Desert Sun
PO Box 2734
Palm Springs, CA 92263
Fax: 760-778-4654
(fewer than 200 words, online form only)
http://www.mydesert.com/letters

Fresno Bee
1626 E Street
Fresno, CA 93786
Fax: 559-441-6499
(fewer than 200 words, online form only)
http://www.fresnobee.com/email/

Inland Valley Daily Bulletin
PO Box 4000
Ontario, CA 91761
Fax: 909-948-9038
letters@inlandnewspapers.com
http://www.dailybulletin.com/opinions

La Opinion
700 S. Flower St., Suite 3100
Los Angeles, CA 90017
Fax: 213-896-2171
(this is a Spanish newspaper, so your letter should be in Spanish)
editorial@impremedia.com

Long Beach Press Telegram
PO Box 230
Long Beach, CA 90844
Fax: 562-499-1277
speakout@presstelegram.com
https://secure.http://www.presstelegram.com/letters

Los Angeles Daily News
PO Box 4200
Woodland Hills, CA 91365
Fax: 818-713-3723
dnforum@dailynews.com
http://www.dailynews.com/opinions#letter_form

Los Angeles Times
202 W. 1st St.
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Fax: 213-237-7968
letters@latimes.com
OC edition: ocletters@latimes.com
http://www.latimes.com/services/site/la-site-talk,0,2562859.htmlstory

Marin Independent Journal
PO Box 6150
Novato, CA 94948
Fax: 415-883-5458
opinion@marinij.com
http://www.marinij.com/letters

Merced Sun Star
3033 G Street
Merced, CA
Fax: 209-385-2460
(online form only)
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/284

Modesto Bee
PO Box 5256
Modesto, CA 95352
Fax: 209-578-2207
(online form only)
http://www.modbee.com/2007/02/12/1354/submit-a-letter-to-the-editor.html

Monterey County Herald
PO Box 271
Monterey, CA 93942
Fax: 831-372-8401
mheditor@montereyherald.com
http://www.montereyherald.com/contact (halfway down)

Napa Valley Register
PO Box 150
Napa, CA 94555
Fax: 707-224-3963
(800 word limit)
http://www.napavalleyregister.com/app/pages/vn/opinion/

North County Times
207 E. Pennsylvania Ave.
Escondido, CA 92025 Fax:
760-745-3769
letters@nctimes.com
http://www.nctimes.com/app/forms/letters/

Oakland Tribune
PO Box 28884
Oakland, CA 94604
Fax: 510-208-6477
(online form only)
http://www.insidebayarea.com/feedback/tribune

Orange County Register
PO Box 11626
Santa Ana, CA 92711
Fax: 714-796-3657
(200 word limit)
letters@ocregister.com
http://www.ocregister.com/sections/opinion/ (halfway down)

Redding Record Searchlight
PO Box 492397
Redding, CA 96049
Fax: 530-225-8212
(online form only)
http://web.redding.com/forms/editorial/letters.html

Riverside Press Enterprise
PO Box 792
Riverside, CA 92502
Fax: 909-368-9024
letters@pe.com
http://www.pe.com/localnews/opinion/letters_form.html

Sacramento Bee
PO Box 15779
Sacramento, CA 95852
Fax: 916-321-1996
oped@sacbee.com
http://www.sacbee.com/2006/09/07/19629/submit-letters-to-the-editor.html

San Bernardino County Sun
2239 Gannett Pkwy.
San Bernardino, CA 92401
Fax: 909-885-8159
voice@inlandnewspapers.com
http://www.sbsun.com/opinions

San Diego Union Tribune
PO Box 120191
San Diego, CA 92112
Fax: 619-293-5081
letters@uniontrib.com
http://obituaries.signonsandiego.com/news/op-ed/letters/index.html

San Francisco Chronicle
901 Mission St.
San Francisco, CA 94103
Fax: 415-543-7708
(online form only)
http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/submissions/#1

San Francisco Examiner
450 Mission St., Fifth Floor San
Francisco, CA 94105 Fax:
415-359-2766
(fewer than 150 words preferred)
letters@sfexaminer.com

San Gabriel Valley Tribune
PO Box 1259
Covina, CA 91722
Fax: 626-856-2758
(100 word limit, online form only)
http://www.sgvtribune.com/writealetter

San Jose Mercury News
750 Ridder Park Drive San
Jose, CA 95190
Fax: 408-271-3792
letters@mercurynews.com
(fewer than 150 words)
http://www.mercurynews.com/letters (bottom of page)

San Luis Obispo Tribune
PO Box 112
San Luis Obispo, CA 93406
Fax: 805-781-7870
letters@thetribunenews.com
(fewer than 200 words)
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/182/index.html

San Mateo County Times
PO Box 5400
San Mateo, CA 94402
Fax: 650-348-4446
(fewer than 250 words)
http://www.mercurynews.com/san-mateo-county-contact-us

Santa Cruz County Sentinel
PO Box 638
Santa Cruz, CA 95061
Fax: 831-429-9620
(fewer than 150 words)
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/submitletters

Santa Maria Times
PO Box 400
Santa Maria, CA 93456
Fax: 805-928-5657
(fewer than 250 words)
http://www.santamariatimes.com/app/submit-letter/

Santa Rosa Press Democrat
PO Box 910
Santa Rosa, CA 95402
Fax: 707-521-5305
letters@pressdemocrat.com
(fewer than 200 words)
http://www.pressdemocrat.com/section/opinion02

Stockton Record
PO Box 900 Stockton,
CA 95201
Fax: 209-547-8186
editor@recordnet.com
(fewer than 250 words)
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=A_OPINION05

Torrance Daily Breeze
PO Box 2982
Torrance, CA 90509 Fax:
310-540-6272
letters@dailybreeze.com
(fewer than 300 words)
http://www.dailybreeze.com/letters

Ventura County Star
Po Box 6711
Ventura, CA 93006
Fax: 805-650-2950
letters@vcstar.com
(fewer than 300 words)
http://www.vcstar.com/contact/ (a quarter of the way down)

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Here's my first draft. It weighs in at 262 words.

Freedom lovers, a bill currently in the state assembly, AB 1934, is threatening to castrate the “bear” portion of the second amendment for all Californians. As useful as a firearm is at home, we should not idly stand by and allow our civil rights to erode any further. This is a final impassioned act of desperation, a final plea to prevent further injury to the people of California, a plea I hope you hear.

Our state's constitution places tremendous importance on its people's rights and freedoms, so much so, that the very first section deals exclusively with our rights. Section one of this section speaks of defending life as well as defending property. Surely the constructors of our constitution didn't envision that victims would be defending their life and limb with their bare fists all while a criminal wields a firearm! Our ability to defend life and protect property are inalienable, so we must reasonably conclude that we have a right to properly defend and protect. The Attorney General's report on homicide in 2008 states that firearms were used in over 70 percent of homicides. Another report on crime in California in 2008 showed that over 31 percent of robberies were performed with a firearm. The conclusions here are readily obvious, despite the California Constitution not explicitly mentioning the right to keep and bear arms, the ability to arm oneself
with a firearm is required to defend life and protect personal property.

Please spread the word regarding this issue and tell your representatives in Sacramento that they should vote against AB 1934.

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bigtoe416 wrote:

Here's my first draft. It weighs in at 262 words.

Freedom lovers, a bill currently in the state assembly, AB 1934, is threatening to castrate the “bear” portion of the second amendment for all Californians. As useful as a firearm is at home, we should not idly stand by and allow our civil rights to erode any further. This is a final impassioned act of desperation, a final plea to prevent further injury to the people of California, a plea I hope you hear.

Our state's constitution places tremendous importance on its people's rights and freedoms, so much so, that the very first section deals exclusively with our rights. Section one of this section speaks of defending life as well as defending property. Surely the constructors of our constitution didn't envision that victims would be defending their life and limb with their bare fists all while a criminal wields a firearm! Our ability to defend life and protect property are inalienable, so we must reasonably conclude that we have a right to properly defend and protect. The Attorney General's report on homicide in 2008 states that firearms were used in over 70 percent of homicides. Another report on crime in California in 2008 showed that over 31 percent of robberies were performed with a firearm. The conclusions here are readily obvious, despite the California Constitution not explicitly mentioning the right to keep and bear arms, the ability to arm oneself
with a firearm is required to defend life and protect personal property.

Please spread the word regarding this issue and tell your representatives in Sacramento that they should vote against AB 1934.

Click to expand...

This great to see and really encouraging! The whole "final desperate act" thing, weakens your position, a little, maybe.
I think the first paragraph hits more square without the last sentence, to be honest.

Other than that,
this is really cool,
in my cool opinion :lol:
Great idea!

Joe Cool

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Submitted this letter to the San Francisco Chronicle, weighs in at 199 words. A shorter haiku version would read,

Bad Ammiano,
AB Nineteen thirty-four
My rights, I implore!

Anyway, here's the letter.

----

San Francisco’s Tom Ammiano has coauthored AB 1934, which seeks to further limit civil rights of all Californians -- the right to bear arms.

California’s constitution places tremendous importance on its people's rights and freedoms, so much so that the first article deals exclusively with our rights. Section one of this article speaks of defending life and defending property. Surely the constructors of our constitution didn't envision that victims would be defending their life and limb with their bare fists all while a criminal wields a firearm! Our ability to defend life and protect property are inalienable, so we must reasonably conclude that we have a right to properly defend and protect.

The Attorney General's report on homicide in 2008 states that firearms were used in over 70 percent of homicides. Another report on crime in California in 2008 showed that over 31 percent of robberies were performed with a firearm. The conclusions here are readily obvious, despite the California Constitution not explicitly mentioning the right to keep and bear arms, the ability to arm oneself with a firearm is required to defend life and protect personal property.

Please tell all your state representatives to vote against AB 1934.

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This is a continuing battle for all of us. I received a letter from the NRA about this very topic along with AB1810 (requirement to register long guns) and AB2223 (banning the use of lead shot for hunting). If you are not a member of the NRA, I say "shame on you" because you should be. If you are a member you should have received a letter as well. I went online and drafted up a very pleasant emailto Assembly Member Paul Cook about how asinine the whole idea is and what a monumental waste of time and money these laws will be. Please, do the same. I will send a letter to the editor of my local newspaper here in Temecula addressing the same concerns. Keep up the good fight!

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Just to update this thread, I was contacted today by the SF Chronicle. The guy asked me where my facts came from and if I indeed did write the letter. I don't know if that means it will be published, but that's my impression.

What does this tell us?

What I suggested above ACTUALLY can work. We individually can actually reach audiences without significant effort if we provide newspapers with an intelligent, different viewpoint. If you read the link above which discusses what newspapers look for in a letter to the editor isn't something that parrots what others have heard before. They aren't looking for polite, uninteresting conversation. They're looking for something that slightly challenges people to think about new ideas and perspectives.

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This is what I got drafted up so far for my letter to the editor. Please let me know what you think everyone! I anxiously await your critisism and/or suggestions. Thanks.



A little while back, several Californians figured out that we can lawfully carry an unloaded weapon in plain sight (Unloaded Open Carry or UOC); and started exercising this fantastic right! Who’da thunk? Way to go pushers of the proverbial envelope. Of course, all this open-carry hullabaloo tends to frighten the meek and uninitiated, and it also causes the liberal crowdto roll up a copy of the 2nd Amendment and begin to flog themselves about the head and shoulders with itout ofanguish and frustration. So what is their knee-jerk and predictable response? We exercise our rights, and they introduce AB1934 of course, which would effectively make it illegal to UOC. Remember, this is an unloaded firearm, essentially a paperweight until you put the little projectiles in there.

I have yet to hear of a law-abiding citizen who was legally UOCing commit a crime with his gun. Hey wait! If I were a criminal with malicious intent, I think maybe it would be a grand idea to carry my firearm in plain sight too. Ludicrous! Wake up people; it’s time for your morning cup of reality. All of us gun owners without criminal records who would like to carry our guns with us are not out to get you, contrary to your popular illusionary belief. Those of us in the military call this mysterious and wonderful phenomenon a “show of force”, and guess what California? It works as a great deterrent! It’s all about prevention, not cure.

And don’t even get me started on AB1810, which would require us to register all of our long guns. Isn’t there enough bureaucracy and tax money misappropriation going on already? We definitely don’t need this jackassery to deal with too.

How about it California? Let’s get onboard the Common Sense Express.

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Published: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/05/21/EDB31DHE4A.DTL