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Every day politicians, celebrities, bags of cash, valuable works of art, warehouses full of goods, and important places are protected with armed guards. Why? They're valuable. So is the everyday person like you and me. We have families. We have friends. Our lives are just as valuable and equally worth protecting. The right to do so is respected and almost everywhere these days, and is even available to Californians when outside their own state. This is a basic human right.
Yet for millions of Californians this right is outrightly denied the moment they step out their doorstep near their own home.
In the vast majority of the US this right is recognized and upheld via Shall Issue policies of concealed carry license: anyone with a clean record showing they follow the law, is 21 years or older, has basic understanding of the applicable laws, and possesses basic competency in handling of firearms is given license their sidearm of choice upon their person, concealed as to conduct their lives among society without disruption of others or harassment by those of differing beliefs. California even has this right acknowledged in many counties, and in fact in the vast majority of the land area of the state. Yes, there is a such thing as a California license to carry firearms. In many areas this is well respected, yet in others you'd never know it exists at all, and some even go out of their way to make sure you never get one for yourself.
For some strange reason some areas of California has it subject to the whims of politicians who often see little in the value of rights and safety of the individual. You literally have less rights purely by being resident in the most populated areas of California. The SAME PERSON anywhere else occupying any of the Free States or in other areas somehow magically becomes judged less worthy for the mere fact of crossing an imaginary line.
The massacres of Virginia Tech, the mall in Nebraska, and NIU occurred in so called "gun free zones," meaning places where lawful possession of firearms of law abiding citizens was prohibited. The law abiding complied and were rewarded with execution. Absolutely zero was accomplished except guaranteeing their helplessness. Most states long ago realized the necessity for allowing citizens their right to self defense in public, and now are working to rectify the problems caused by exclusions to this basic right. Concealed carry by the average citizen has been a success everywhere it has been tried. Correspondingly, the lack of it has clearly been proven to achieve the opposite. California by its questionable "may issue" system has, for the vast majority of the population, become the country's largest "gun free zone." As a result people are free targets for all manner of violent crime because of it. More restrictions on gun ownership, particularly that which may be carried and the act of carrying them are implemented...and the crime continues. Not one less crime actually ever takes place, and nobody even bothers to honestly ask why. Yet as the rest of the country has gotten wise to the problem and is fixing it, the heavily populated counties in CA and the state remain the same and are in fact moving in the opposite direction, away from what has worked everywhere else. The solution to the problem is being applied everywhere else, yet where it is needed it is completely ignored. In fact the very people who deserve the same relief, the same freedom to solve their own problems are the very people to whom the proven solution is being denied.
In short, if you live in the heavily populated counties of California, you are being punished for living there--just because misguided politicians and policemen who are supposed to care for your safety suggest doing so by implementing policies which insure the opposite. Laws, laws, and more laws, yet none of the "promised" results. Those who trumpet the cause of firearms restriction in the name of safety are charlatans. Rather than being demanded to account for their results, they are instead given free rein to sacrifice other people to their flawed, feelgood based policies in spite of what results virtually everwhere else have shown.
This group's purpose is to demand, quite simply, the same right to defend ourselves in California as is afforded to citizens in the vast majority of the rest of the US. There is absolutely no reason to obstruct or exclude any citizen's right to carry who is otherwise accepted in 40 out of the 50 states. Those who have license to do so in other states should have their rights honored here as well.
The Second Amendment is not optional, discretionary, or subject to arbitrary whims. To defend oneself is not only a right, it is a fundamental responsibility.
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Who needs to join?
Anyone who has moved from another state and now has less rights than they had--for the "crime" of moving to California.
If you have out of state permits that are valid in lots of places EXCEPT...where you live. You're actually safer 300 miles away than at your grocery store.
If you live in a county that has no issue because of sheriffs who think your rights aren't rights just because you're in their jurisdiction.
If you don't have $10,000+ to donate to a local election in exchange for the right to protect your life--and you don't find legalized bribery within your ethics.
If you don't think having an occupation that can kill you should be a requirement for the right not to be murdered.
If you'd rather not have to be robbed or raped first to be justified in defending yourself from being robbed or raped the second time.
If your last name isn't Affleck or Stallone or first name isn't preceded by "The Honorable" yet your kids still love you and want you to get home safe at night.
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This isn't about being extreme or outlandish. It's simply a demand for equal rights. Give us the same access to our rights as everywhere else. The right to go to a gas station late at night. The right to visit an ATM without being a target. The right to drive your car without fear of it being stolen with you in it. The right to not have someone else's bad decisions in life decide whether or not your family sees you that night.
There should be NO:
"Good Cause" requirement that can be rejected on a whim. We are living human beings. Human life is priceless. Our families value us more than a bag of cash or a tray of diamonds. That's good enough cause to defend ourselves wherever we may be.
No "discretion" in determining who gets to choose whether to bear arms or not. That's our job.
No ridiculous repository or waiting periods. Waiting till 21 years old, being able to pay retail price for it, and going through a standard FBI background check and ATF form 4473 is good enough for anyone everywhere else.
No exclusionary list of what a panel of bureacrats think is "acceptable" and "safe" for ordinary citizens to own while the state's designated people have no such standard. Whatever the market provides and the individual determines appropriate for them as in every other state should be available to all who can legally purchase.
No more nonsense because we somehow cross a line between two spots in the desert, one tree further south, or some rock in the middle of a river. This is the United States of America and it's about time California got the picture and started acting like it.
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