Venator
Anti-Saldana Freedom Fighter
JOHN BOGERT: Second Amendment fans aim to change minds
By John Bogert, Staff Columnist for DAILY BREEZE.COM 07/18/2010
I received an interesting puzzle from Dr. John Elfmont of Redondo Beach. "Enclosed you will find a picture of three revolvers, which are illegal in California. If you can tell me (from your own knowledge) why they are illegal, I'll come over and take you to lunch. There is a larger, more important point to be made which I think will interest you."
The revolvers pictured were manufactured by Taurus, "the world's foremost pistol maker." At first glance, all three looked not terribly different from a great number of weapons I have fired over the years except for one thing. All of them had really long cylinders to, obviously, accommodate really long cartridges. But aside from one of the handguns being partially made of a nonmetallic composite, I didn't notice anything amiss until I saw that the models called The Judge, The Judge 3-inch Magnum and The Judge Public Defender can fire ".410 gauge, 2.5-inch shotshells."
Thinking back to what I know - and most of what I know comes from pistol-shooting courses taken for stories and from a childhood where Dad and I would hoist a freshly-shot-to-death deer onto the right front bumper of the Ford - it came to me. Actually, what came to me first was a variation on an old saying, "Shoot them all and leave the judging to God."
That and the fact that a .410 gauge is a shotgun shell! These guns are illegal in California because they are essentially little sawed-off shotguns. After e-mailing my guess to the good doctor, he replied in part, "That you can shoot these from the Judge doesn't make the Judge a sawed-off shotgun ... it makes legislators creative in their wording of laws.
The only person I know of personally who was killed in gun violence in this area was the brother of one of my office staff. ... It involved an ex-girlfriend and a shot fired from 12 feet away ... by a .22 short bullet. ... But he was no less dead than if he'd been shot by some `illegal' gun from a mile away.
"Bad guys will always find ways to have guns, and since the Constitution, and now the Supreme Court, have ruled in my favor, I resent attempts to circumvent my Second Amendment rights, as you would resent attempts to circumvent your First Amendment rights. "Two former colleagues were robbed, and the wife of one was sexually assaulted, during home invasions. None of the perpetrators paid any attention to gun control laws. But I hope to provide a better outcome should any malfeasors break into my house."
ON OPEN CARRY
And there was this: "My name is Sam Wolanyk. I'm the chairman of Responsible Citizens of California, a carry advocacy group. Here's how you know whether someone is a law abiding open-carrier or whether they are intending to empty their firearm into your children: Criminals and psychos don't open-carry. They illegally conceal.
"Go find yourself a cop and ask him if he has even seen a criminal open-carry. The answer is no. It's so absurd it's laughable. The dumbest crook in the world wouldn't advertise that he is carrying a weapon. Ask Lori Saldana (D-San Diego and an opponent of open-carry) if there has ever been a case, in any of the states, of an open carrier committing a crime with his firearm.
"Every time you are out in public there are people who are carrying guns illegally concealed. When one of those concealed guns becomes visible this means that the criminal intends to use it. Unarmed, you have the options of begging, blubbering, hoping, praying and calling 911 to have the police arrive in time to verify that you and your kid are dead. "All because you didn't have the ability to protect your family.
Do I expect or hope for confrontation? Absolutely not. Nor do I expect or hope for my house to burn down, but I've got smoke alarms and fire extinguishers."
By John Bogert, Staff Columnist for DAILY BREEZE.COM 07/18/2010
I received an interesting puzzle from Dr. John Elfmont of Redondo Beach. "Enclosed you will find a picture of three revolvers, which are illegal in California. If you can tell me (from your own knowledge) why they are illegal, I'll come over and take you to lunch. There is a larger, more important point to be made which I think will interest you."
The revolvers pictured were manufactured by Taurus, "the world's foremost pistol maker." At first glance, all three looked not terribly different from a great number of weapons I have fired over the years except for one thing. All of them had really long cylinders to, obviously, accommodate really long cartridges. But aside from one of the handguns being partially made of a nonmetallic composite, I didn't notice anything amiss until I saw that the models called The Judge, The Judge 3-inch Magnum and The Judge Public Defender can fire ".410 gauge, 2.5-inch shotshells."
Thinking back to what I know - and most of what I know comes from pistol-shooting courses taken for stories and from a childhood where Dad and I would hoist a freshly-shot-to-death deer onto the right front bumper of the Ford - it came to me. Actually, what came to me first was a variation on an old saying, "Shoot them all and leave the judging to God."
That and the fact that a .410 gauge is a shotgun shell! These guns are illegal in California because they are essentially little sawed-off shotguns. After e-mailing my guess to the good doctor, he replied in part, "That you can shoot these from the Judge doesn't make the Judge a sawed-off shotgun ... it makes legislators creative in their wording of laws.
The only person I know of personally who was killed in gun violence in this area was the brother of one of my office staff. ... It involved an ex-girlfriend and a shot fired from 12 feet away ... by a .22 short bullet. ... But he was no less dead than if he'd been shot by some `illegal' gun from a mile away.
"Bad guys will always find ways to have guns, and since the Constitution, and now the Supreme Court, have ruled in my favor, I resent attempts to circumvent my Second Amendment rights, as you would resent attempts to circumvent your First Amendment rights. "Two former colleagues were robbed, and the wife of one was sexually assaulted, during home invasions. None of the perpetrators paid any attention to gun control laws. But I hope to provide a better outcome should any malfeasors break into my house."
ON OPEN CARRY
And there was this: "My name is Sam Wolanyk. I'm the chairman of Responsible Citizens of California, a carry advocacy group. Here's how you know whether someone is a law abiding open-carrier or whether they are intending to empty their firearm into your children: Criminals and psychos don't open-carry. They illegally conceal.
"Go find yourself a cop and ask him if he has even seen a criminal open-carry. The answer is no. It's so absurd it's laughable. The dumbest crook in the world wouldn't advertise that he is carrying a weapon. Ask Lori Saldana (D-San Diego and an opponent of open-carry) if there has ever been a case, in any of the states, of an open carrier committing a crime with his firearm.
"Every time you are out in public there are people who are carrying guns illegally concealed. When one of those concealed guns becomes visible this means that the criminal intends to use it. Unarmed, you have the options of begging, blubbering, hoping, praying and calling 911 to have the police arrive in time to verify that you and your kid are dead. "All because you didn't have the ability to protect your family.
Do I expect or hope for confrontation? Absolutely not. Nor do I expect or hope for my house to burn down, but I've got smoke alarms and fire extinguishers."
