Whether it’s legislative bills about guns or other things, California has lost the plot
Whenever existing gun laws fail to stop a mass shooter, Democrats go mad enacting other laws that will constrain legal gun-owners while almost certainly doing nothing to stop the daily gun crime that plagues America's Democrat-run cities or the periodic eruptions of school or other mass shootings. California, of course, which has always been considered the state that points to America's future, is constantly thinking of new ways to circumvent the Second Amendment.
Here's a look at gun proposals currently moving forward in California:
- A bill to require school officials to report any "perceived threat" of a mass shooting event to law enforcement and mandate districts to share safe gun storage information with families of middle- and high-school students.
- A bill to ban gun shows and firearm sales on state property.
- A bill to require licensed firearm dealers to have digital video surveillance, burglary alarm, and keyless entry systems; carry general liability insurance; and complete annual training. (It's easy to imagine that gun-collectors and, eventually, gun-owners will have the same requirements imposed on them.)
- A bill to ban the advertising of certain firearms to minors. (One must ask: will this include posters and TV ads recruiting young Marines? Or will it force Hollywood to stop glamorizing guns in its movies?)
Image by Andrea Widburg, using a public domain image.
Of course, when it comes to California, the progressive urge to control every aspect of people's lives extends far beyond destroying the Second Amendment. Here's a rundown of other high-profile bills being considered in California:
- A proposal to allow California parents to sue social media companies for harm caused by hooking their kids on addictive algorithms. (The obvious defense is that the parents shouldn't have allowed their children to have internet-connected phones or other unsupervised media time.)
- A proposal to require schools to continue COVID-19 testing and create testing plans in conjunction with the state. (Never mind that children are minimally affected by COVID and are unlikely to be vectors for causing others to catch it.)
- A slew of proposals to expand abortion access for both in-state and out-of-state patients and protect them and providers from civil and criminal liability. (You can imagine the new state motto: "Come to beautiful California to kill your baby.")
- A proposal to force companies to include pay ranges in job postings, let workers know when promotion opportunities are available, and publish pay data broken out by race and sex.
- A proposal to increase affordable housing construction — which has managed to divide powerful labor unions.
- A proposal to exempt certain university housing projects from California's landmark environmental law. (Because, while universities can preach the Green faith, it would be unfair to force them to abide by it.)
- A proposal to launch a pilot project offering universal basic income to farm workers unable to work due to California's devastating drought. (Universal basic income doesn't work. It just doesn't. This plan won't be any better, although the drought is devastating, and those people who are legally here need help.)
California used to be the "Golden State," leading the way for the rest of America. Now the only place it's leading is straight off the progressive cliff, and we can only hope Americans refuse to follow.