California ‘Disarmageddon’ Repeal Effort Needs Committed Advocate Involvement

By David Codrea

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California gun owners will need to pull together now to get the required number of signatures in a short amount of time.

USA – -(Ammoland.com)- Most California gun owner advocacy groups will not be joining an effort to overturn recently-enacted gun owner controls, the Associated Press reports. While state officials have cleared petitions for circulation, originator Barry Bahrami and his supporters only have until Sept 29 to amass the required 365,000 signatures on each of their referendum documents to qualify for inclusion on the November ballot. And with one notable exception, it appears they’re on their own.

Per the AP report, NRA will not be participating. Neither will the California Rifle and Pistol Association.* Likewise, the Firearms Policy Coalition has evidently distanced itself from the petitions.* [See Updates, below]

Per FPC lobbyist Craig DeLuz, the reasons for staying out are that “millions of dollars [are] needed to collect signatures,” membership groups have “limited resources,” and “his group is considering challenging the laws in court.”

Gun Owners of California appears to be an exception, with a Facebook post urging followers to “get involved today.” While there is no prominent further support effort being coordinated as yet on the GOC website, a comment posted on The War on Guns blog noted:

Gun Owners of California Executive Director Sam Paredes has spoken about the petition on the radio. He has a weekly show every Monday from 8 to 9 am (KTKZ, Sacramento, 105.5 FM), and is a regular guest of Phil Cowan, whose show is on from 6 to 9 weekday mornings (KTKZ, 1380 AM). GOC’s Facebook page just posted information on the petition drive this morning. It’s already received 310 likes. That’s a good sign.

The real effort is being coordinated from the Veto Gunmageddon website, which includes sections explaining what the process is about and how you can get involved through volunteering, donations and sharing information. The group also keeps supporters apprised of developments through its Facebook and Twitter accounts.

At this writing, petitions are not yet available – the scheduled drive begins on Friday, August 12. In the interim, and after the drive begins in earnest, many gun owners will get a chance to see if they have what it takes to be part of a true grassroots effort.

Are the majority of established groups right to be cynical about the chances of first getting enough signatures to qualify and then prevailing in an election? Or is this something around which gun owners can independently rally around and pull together on?

The first question to explore: Are 365,000 valid signatures truly unattainable without “millions of dollars” to pay professional collectors? What would it cost each of the gun groups to inform their respective members and ask them to get involved, on their websites, on their social media sites, and to include mention of in correspondence/newsletters/alerts they send out anyway?

And what kind of personal effort would it take for each gun owner reading this to get up to speed on this and spread the word to at least 10 gun owner friends, and urge them to do the same? Is it really too much to ask gun stores and ranges to advise customers and collect signatures – or allow a space for volunteers to do that?  And can’t the grassroots NRA Members Councils, holding regular meetings throughout the state, give it a few minutes on their agendas, and maybe invite a Veto Gunmageddon representative to speak?

If you’re a member of one of the “holdout” groups, remind them it’s not a question of expending all political capital and resources on this to the exclusion of other vital priorities; it’s simply a matter of devoting some attention and some support.  Many hands and all that, and yes, gun owners are perfectly capable of walking and chewing gum at the same time.

A thoughtful effort has been created to fight back by people who deeply care, and who don’t see many redress options left. Will enough gun owners at least try, or have they already, through deliberate inaction, preemptively surrendered to Disarmageddon? Dismissing it all with an anonymous “Molon Labe” comment may feel emotionally satisfying, but how many people who won’t lift a finger to do the easy stuff are actually prepared to have that challenge – and everything that comes with it – seriously answered?

* UPDATE: Per Firearms Policy Coalition:

We agree with CRPA and will support the veto referenda campaign by directing anyone who is interested in participating in or supporting the campaign to the appropriate party.

DeLuz never told or indicated to the AP reporter that pro-gun groups were “not seriously considering signing on to the campaign,” and FPC has never and will never speak for any other organization without their express permission. We condemn the AP for falsely representing our views (and those of other pro-gun organizations) on the veto referendum currently active in California.

That said, what is being requested of the groups is minimal and should not overly tax their resources or add a burden to their existing agendas.

UPDATE 2 (8/10): Per CRPA:

Some recent news reports have falsely stated that CRPA is not supporting this effort. That is incorrect … CRPA’s legal team has prepared an analysis of the process and the hurdles that will be faced. To read it, click here.

 

David Codrea in his natural habitat.

About David Codrea:

David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating / defending the RKBA and a long-time gun rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament.

In addition to being a field editor/columnist at GUNS Magazine and associate editor for Oath Keepers, he blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.

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Eric_CA

On Tuesday I signed the petitions. 7 gun related and 2 non gun related. One is for electronic signature gathering for future petitions. Anyway, Tuesday I signed and I brought 100 copies of the Veto Gunmageddon flyer. I stayed several hours helping gather signatures. I left and came back in the evening to close out the day at the Turner’s in Norwalk, CA. I took Wednesday off and put in another 7.5 hours gathering signatures. I was at the opening at the Turner’s at 10am until 2pm. Then back from 5:30pm until closing 8pm. Three volunteers (including me) rotated to… Read more »

Saul Souza

The reason that the pro-gun groups NRA, are not supporting this should be more obvious to gun owners.

If you get the 300k signatures via social media and volunteers why then would you need a bloated corrupt traitorous organization like the NRA?

If this DIY petition drive gets even 100k signatures it proves successful bypass of these groups influence.

The NRA wants veto gunmageddon to fail because otherwise they can not shake diwn their gun owners annually.

After all the NRA is a business . California gun owners are the true constituency.

Sign everyone .God bless.

F Riehl, Editor in Chief

UPDATE FYI : NRA and NRA-ILA are both supporting this effort: https://www.ammoland.com/2016/08/california-veto-gunmaggedon-needs-your-signatures/

Carlos Perdue

Bzzzz. WRONG! They’re “supporting” the effort.

NRA & CRPA know full well the only way to ensure qualification is to MAIL the petitions to their members, or which there are hundreds of thousands.

If each just got their family and close friends, the referenda would easily qualify.

If they fail to qualify, it will be because NRA & CRPA didn’t mail to their members.

Bottom line: They’re not mailing to their members. Therefore the ‘support’ is a press release for Kabuki show only. Plausible deniability so they can keep sucking $ from well meaning Californians.

Eric_CA

Thank you David for helping get the word out. In 1982 I volunteered with the NRA to defeat Prop. 15. Handgun registration. Anyone remember Prop. 15? The NRA spent 5 million to oppose Prop. 15. We won 63% against versus 37% for. Now just imagine if the associations that I belong to (NRA & CRPA) would have had the foresight to place a pro gun initiative on the ballot. We would have won and advanced our rights and would be better off today. I question many times why not try a veto referendum. The veto referendum has been available, but… Read more »

Carlos Perdue

I volunteered and organized extensively against Prop 15. You’re right, now is not the time to squabble, now is the time to get the word out. Not just the word about the referenda and where petitions are available, but about how the major groups are not really backing the effort, but are passive-aggressively sabotaging it. Unless they stop *pretending* to support it and *really* get on board it will probably not qualify. Whereas if they cut the Kabuki “support” and get on board NOW, it almost certainly *will* qualify. True support means, at a minimum and for starters, mailing the… Read more »

Elmo

Not mentioned up to this point (that I have seen) is that the main effort will be to place the petitions at gun stores throughout California. That means they should be easier to locate than a Happy Meal at McDonalds (see what I did there?) and signing one will be FREE! All you have to do is head down to your favorite gun store and ask about the petition and SIGN IT (using the correct information, as pointed out by Carlos). So just tell your significant other that you NEED to take her to your favorite gun store (and he/she… Read more »

Carlos Perdue

“Craig DeLuz, [the] Firearms Policy Coalition lobbyist, knows of no financial backers intending to help the campaign generate millions of dollars needed to collect signatures. DeLuz said NRA, California Rifle & Pistol Ass [CRaPA] and other groups told him they’re not seriously considering signing on. FPC also decided not to contribute.” – Washington Post [paraphrased] “Correction” [with paraphrased translations from beltway doubletalk: “[The referendum is a terrible idea, etc.]… We agree with CRPA and will support the veto referenda campaign by directing anyone who is interested in participating in or supporting the campaign to the appropriate party… DeLuz never [said… Read more »

Suzanne St. John

Follow the Constitution ALWAYS. You will be replaced by Term Limits since you refuse to do the right thing.

Nancy - California Patriot

I’m torn on this as I am a card-carrying member of all of the gun rights orgs named in this article. I’ve been on several petition drives in California and know how hard it is – especially with this limited time and at least 6 petitions to collect for names. And all names must be written exactly as they appear on the Voter’s Registration application – which most people can’t remember if they used their middle initial or not. And if they sign on the wrong County petition, the whole petition is thrown out. This is not a citizen friendly… Read more »

Carlos Perdue

First, the referenda qualification, even if professionally qualified, would never cost more than a tiny fraction of what FPC alleges. Their numbers are ridiculous red herrings. Yes, gathering sigs is not easy, but there are hundreds of thousands of gun group members in California and it would cost you nothing and cost them virtually nothing to mail them petitions or at least email directions on where to go get them and ask them to gather at least 10 sets of signatures each. Second, it’s quite obvious that we’re *losing* the courts, thanks to deluge immigration. And that deluge immigration is… Read more »

Nancy - California Patriot

Understood, Carlos. But I am already contributing a lot of $ to the lawsuits and spending my own hard earned dollars and “spare” time to purchase educational materials and copy articles to educate people in SoCal about the threats to our 2A at my local gun club/range – and believe me, we have a LOT of ignorant firearms owners. I coordinate a Women’s Shooting Group and a 2A group there as well. Preserving my 2A is my focus and mission in life. I only have so much time /$ to go around and I carefully consider where it will best… Read more »

Carlos Perdue

I’m not chastising you, I appreciate your good work. But if FPC, CRaPA, NRA, and CCRKBA mailed out 300,000 sets of petitions to their members and asked them each to gather 10 signatures, you wouldn’t circulate your set? Not even at the range with your own group? Or your own family? FPC is lying about the costs and sabotaging the effort. If every gun group member gathered their own family alone, a few lousy signatures each, the referendums would qualify, and it would cost the gun grabbers at least $100 million to kill them. That’s $100 million less Bloomberg &… Read more »