Attorney General Xavier Becerra (Photo: Facebook)
Several prominent gun-rights organizations are suing California this week because the state’s plan for the mandatory registration of certain firearms was a total disaster.
“We’re suing because California DOJ’s Firearms Application Reporting System (CFARS) broke down during the deadline week for people to register their firearms in accordance with new state laws,” said Second Amendment Foundation founder and Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb.
“For a whole week the system was largely inaccessible,” he continued. “People who wanted to comply with the law simply couldn’t and now they face becoming criminals because they couldn’t do what the law requires.”
Filed in Shasta County Superior Court, the lawsuit specifically targets the state Department of Justice and Attorney General Xavier Becerra.
Joining SAF in this legal effort are the Calguns Foundation, Firearms Policy Coalition, Firearms Policy Foundation and three private citizens. Filed in Shasta County Superior Court, the groups want to block the requirement until a “reliable and functional registration system” is implemented.
“Predictably the state of California wants to take guns away from the law abiding. In this instance they couldn’t even build a working system to respect gun owners’ rights,” explained CGF Chairman Gene Hoffman. “We simply want to allow those who want to comply with the law to have more time with a working registration system.”
Exclusive: Public Records Prove California Gun Registration Was a Total Disaster
Not only did the registration website crash periodically, but it was leaking personal information. Users would have access to the home address, telephone number, email and Driver’s License number of someone else, as the NRA-ILA reported.
Compliance numbers further indicate just how poorly managed the system was. A grand total of 6,213 individuals successfully registered 13,519 “assault weapons” before the July 1st deadline, according to public records request obtained by GunsAmerica.
While the number of so-called “assault weapons” equipped with bullet buttons in the Golden State is unknown, it’s fair to assume there are hundreds of thousands, if not millions, in circulation. Sales on long guns in 2016 alone exceeded 750,000, according to Sacbee. Presumably many of those are AR-pattern rifles with bullet buttons because of the impending ban that was set to take effect on Jan. 1, 2017.
Under the new laws, gun owners were given one year to register their ARs, or until Jan. 1, 2018. However, lawmakers pushed back that date to July 1, 2018. Even with the added time, the whole thing was a disaster.
“It’s like a bad version of ‘Catch-22’,” Gottlieb observed. “The government required registration by the deadline, but the online registration failed and people couldn’t register. They’re required to obey the law, but the system broke down, making it impossible to obey the law. Now these people face the possibility of being prosecuted. We simply cannot abide that kind of incompetence.”
Do You know how FEW People today REALLY KNOW what the
Famous ” Catch 22 ” is about ?
I’ve ASKED a couple different people if They know,
AFTER They’ve used It & One
Did but the Younger One had
No Clue 😏
LesB
California among others need to research and understand what an “assault weapon” is. What is the true definition of an assault weapon?
The U.S. Army defines assault rifles as “short, compact, selective-fire weapons that fire a cartridge intermediate in power between submachine gun and rifle cartridges.” … It must be capable of selective fire.
Selective Fire means “between semi-auto and “full-auto” firing. Fully automatic weapons are and have been for many years highly regulated.
I am surprised that anyone tried to register their weapons, since that they do not fall under the definition of “assault weapons”.
Furthermore, gun control advocates are using the term “assault weapon” as a scare tact to gain compliance. Folks, wake up and think about what is being done to your God given right of protection!
I’ve read a lot of comments here at gunsamerica about California and most seem to be from people in other states. They can’t seem to understand why Californians don’t “rise up” or “stand up for their rights” or some similar sentiment.
Unfortunately, California is a state where majority of citizens of voting age do not own firearms. And I doubt most Californians have ever even touched one plus they’ve been brainwashed to believe firearms are dangerous and they need to get rid of them. And since firearm owners are in the minority, even if we were organized, which we are not, we’re fighting an uphill battle. Every time they show a video of a firearm owner in the south screaming about “it’s my god given right to own a gun…” they just see a crazy person who needs to be saved from himself.
Personally, I’d like to see a well-organized campaign to change people’s perception of firearms and firearm owners so maybe we’d have a chance at the ballot boxes, but instead, we get groups that file injunctions/lawsuits against the AG. I know they’re doing what they think is best, but it feels like they’re trying to win small battles while the war is being lost.
Let’s really make us criminals, and flip this communistic bs government, and take our country back!
Home of the free, Land of the brave!
Good luck trying to sue the gov’t. They have a ton of lawyers, paid for by your taxes, and nothing but time to string you along. “You can’t fight City Hall” i believe is the expression.
On the flip side, if they are now criminals, they don’t have to register their firearms. By registering their firearms, they are self incriminating, which violates the 5th amendment because criminals can’t legally own firearms
Hmmmm…sounds about as operational as the original ObamaCare registration sites were