California Lawmakers Spike Measure Pushed by Gun-Grabbers
It’s a stunning development: California’s leftist legislators have found a gun control bill that’s a bridge too far for them to cross.
According to California-centric conservative website The Center Square, Senate Bill 906, which would have forced parents or guardians of public schoolchildren to notify the state about whether they owned a gun, stalled in committee this week.
The bill also would have required parents to disclose how they stored the gun and how accessible it was to the pupil. In addition, it would have given school officials the ability to search students’ bags or other property on campus if any credible threat of violence existed.
(This is hardly the only gun-grabbing measure California Democrats have tried to push through — and here at The Western Journal, we’re dedicated to keeping readers across America notified about the Golden State’s assault on the Second Amendment. If you support our efforts, please consider subscribing.)
The bill was introduced by state Sen. Anthony Portantino — a Democrat, naturally — who had promised to amend it significantly due to concerns about its scope. Elementary schools would have been eliminated in the final version of Senate Bill 906 if it went on to the full, Democrat-controlled upper chamber of California’s legislature.
However, Portantino still thought the bill was an effective measure to stop school shootings.
“Every student, every teacher, every administrator, every staff member and every visitor to a school and every volunteer should go to work on a campus in the morning and safely come home in the afternoon,” he told the committee.
However, Portantino’s bill got only two votes from the Senate Education Committee on Wednesday, failing to advance to a floor vote.
“We all want to ensure schools are safe and to prevent horrific school shootings – there’s no question there,” said Democratic Sen. Connie Leyva, the committee chairwoman. “I believe a better approach is by addressing student mental health.”
The two votes came from Democrat Sens. Richard Pan and Steve Glazer.
In his remarks, Glazer fell back upon the usual thoughts-and-prayers-aren’t-good-enough gambit.
“After all these tragedies, we always say our hearts and prayers go out to those who have been hurt and we pledge to try to do something to make it not happen again,” he said.
Gun groups were vehemently opposed to the legislation, however.
“This is not how we’re going to make California safer,” said Roy Griffith, legislative director with the California Rifle and Pistol Association. “What’s next? Having parents report swimming pools in their backyards and prescription drugs in their medicine cabinets?”
Meanwhile, Gun Owners of California called the bill unconstitutional, noting that the “[Fourth] Amendment not only protects, but also promotes the expectation of privacy, ensuring that we, as Americans, have a right to be free from intrusion in our homes — whether it’s a physical or electronic intrusion or from a stranger or the government.”
“The thought that an arm of the government — in other words your local school district — could be forced to question parents about what they have in the privacy of their homes — an item legal to own, no less — is shameful,” the group said in a February statement.
“School districts have no more right to question parents about what guns they have than to ask how much beer is in their refrigerator.”
Meanwhile, the National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action called it “one more attack on the law-abiding citizens of California, amounting to a major invasion of privacy and potential harassment.”
Republican committee members agreed, with Sen. Brian Dahle noting it “infringes on gun owners’ rights.”
However, there’s a minor miracle here, which is that California Democrats have found a gun control bill they can’t get behind.
California is yet another state which has passed bans on “high-capacity magazines” and “assault rifles.”
Meanwhile, state Democrats are considering a bill that would allow private citizens to sue gun makers, a lá the Texas law that allows private citizens to sue abortion providers.
It’s unclear whether this is meant as a political stunt or California Democrats really think Republicans have found a way to bypass constitutional rights. (The difference, of course, is that there’s no constitutional right to abortion and Roe v. Wade is a terrible precedent.)
And after all that, this bill — which would have breached residents’ right to privacy in order to enroll their children in public school — went far enough that even California’s gun-grabbing Democrats couldn’t cosign it.
Thank heavens for their sanity, temporary though it may be.
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