California Legislators Need a Vocabulary Lesson!

Believe it or not I'm not a huge 2nd Amendment guy.  I believe in the 2nd Amendment but I think there is a reasonable limit on what should be allowable for the general public.  I'd argue that we already have some reasonable limits, but I am open to the idea that we could have some open an honest dialogue regarding the issue of gun control.

While I'm at it I've been on record before and I'll be so again in stating that the issue of gun control is much more than making up some laws that make people feel good at night.  For the most part gun control laws only affect those that intend to follow the law.  I think the first thing we need to to is realize that firearms are useful tools and the first part of gun control is appropriate firearms education.

The problem I'm seeing is that we have legislators and lobbyists knee-jerking and trying to legislate from a position of emotion and, quite frankly, stupidity.  Please take a look at Illinois, the President's "home" state, Chicago in particular.  No one denies that gun violence in Chicago is horrible, but too many people seem to gloss over that Illinois & Chicago have a metric butt-load of firearm legislation. All those laws don't seem to do much to dissuade the violence, which really makes me wonder what they are there for.  I have to assume, in part to the state's terrible prison overcrowding issues, that the legislation is there to punish people after the fact.  Good to know that you cannot carry a gun to defend yourself, but your assailant will get some extra time for using one against you.

Ok, that may or may not be a cheap shot.  I'm just telling it as I see it.  That is the beauty of my blog in that I get to do that.  I enjoy calling people out on stupid shit.....like the Democrats in California.

The Associated Press reported nearly a day ago (read it here or here) that the Democrats in California want to one-up New York in a bid to have the toughest gun control laws.  It appears that the needs of their citizens isn't the driving force so much as the need to be on top...or the bottom depending on your point of view.

Hey, legislators legislate....it is what they do.  I just personally think they should have a fricken clue when doing so.  You want to prohibit certain weapons or require better background checks, fine....put it on the table and we'll discuss each measure on its own merit.  Come on, legislators are professionals, right?  We should afford them some measure of trust that they know what they are doing, even if we don't necessarily agree with their work.  That is part of the political and legislative process.

The real problem comes when you find out your legislator is a total idiot and cannot be bothered to know what he (or she...stupidity is not gender-blind) is even talking about.  If you haven't read that AP story, skip ahead to the bottom, the first sentence of the next to last paragraph.  Did you catch that?  I'll copy Don Thompson's words here:
"Other proposed measures in California would ban so-called "bullet buttons" that can be used to quickly detach and reload magazines in semi-automatic rifles"

Picture by DieselLaceDesign

"Bullet Button"?......."Bullet Button"!  I'm quite certain that every part of a firearm has a proper name.  Do you know what the barely educated call the "bullet button"?  That's right!  It's a fricken magazine release!  The overwhelming majority of firearms made today require a magazine release to load the weapon.  The only ones that don't would be those that aren't magazine fed.

Do we really need to dumb down our interactions with legislators so they can wrap their heads around what they are trying to accomplish?  I shudder to think of having to talk to an allegedly grown & educated adult in toddler speak just to make sure they don't ban my "bang-bangs".