Opinion By Matthew D. Cubeiro
California – -(AmmoLand.com)- Our law firm is often contacted by individuals seeking to preserve or restore their Second Amendment rights.
Some folks are prohibited from owning or possessing firearms because of a prior criminal conviction, or by a restraining order they may not even know about, or for other reasons, and we can often help. Far more often than you might expect, people are denied their rights simply because the California Department of Justice’s (“DOJ”) records are out of date, inaccurate, or incomplete. In these cases, resolving the issue often requires providing DOJ with updated information. Typically, DOJ refuses to do the work to update their records and insists that the individual obtain and provide the information to DOJ.
Why should the burden rest on the individual to prove to the government they are not prohibited from exercising their constitutionally protected rights?
Good question. And one which is being asked at this very moment in the context of California’s ammunition sales restrictions. California Rifle & Pistol Association: CRPA, with support from the NRA, filed a lawsuit titled Rhode v. Becerra challenging those restrictions as a violation of the Second Amendment and Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution. When the ammunition transaction background check requirements took effect this past July [2019], more than 20% of law-abiding citizens attempting to purchase ammunition in California were denied due to outdated or incomplete records maintained by DOJ. In response, the plaintiffs in Rhode have now filed a motion for an injunction, noting that DOJ “has the burden to prove that a person is not entitled to exercise a right—not the other way around.”
DOJ’s inaccurate and outdated databases are not the only problems some California residents have been forced to deal with. Many law-abiding gun owners have been contacted by armed DOJ agents who mistakenly believed they were prohibited. Other individuals who are in fact prohibited have also been contacted because DOJ mistakenly believed they are in possession of a firearm previously seized by another law enforcement agency, despite the person also informing DOJ—under penalty of perjury—that they no longer possessed the firearm. Such stories are among of dozens of examples that illustrate the bureaucratic mess that is the DOJ Bureau of Firearms.
Just when you thought things can’t get any worse, DOJ now appears to include “Other” as justification to deny a person their Second Amendment rights. See for yourself:
The letter goes on to state that if the person wishes “to challenge the accuracy” of DOJ’s determination, they should undergo Live Scan fingerprinting to obtain and review their criminal records.
But what good will that do, exactly? How can the person in this case challenge DOJ’s prohibited person determination when they don’t even know what that determination is based on?
Sadly, it’s another shameful display of bureaucratic sloth from California’s top law enforcement agency.
Matthew D. Cubeiro is a California attorney who serves as Special Counsel for Michel & Associates, P.C. His primary practice areas involves firearm-related regulatory compliance, and is co-author of California gun Laws: A Guide to State and Federal Firearm Regulations.
All ‘gun control laws’ are un-Constitutional: Article 6, U.S. Constitution “The Constitution…shall be the supreme law of the land”. Therefore, no federal or state legislative law, Executive Order or local decree may limit, deny, change or modify the Constitution. THAT is called the ‘Supremacy Clause’. Article 6 continues “All laws must conform to and be made pursuant to the Constitution”. Therefore, any federal or state legislative law, Executive Order or local decree not in 100% harmony with the U.S. Constitution, is null & void. When Americans obey the un-Constitutional ‘gun control laws’, they tell the tyrant they will accept any… Read more »
I’m 70 years old, lived in Cali. most of my life except for military service and work. No more. I was once an FFL in Cali, sold guns from my non-gun shop and had little problem with the local sheriff and DOJ. That was a long time ago. This once beautiful place to live has been turned to a third-world socialist hell-hole. Breaks my heart to see this happening. Moved to a (relatively) free state and suggest others who love freedom do so. I hate saying this, but it looks like there’s no saving it. If you live there, get… Read more »
Commiefornia is blatantly denying people their RKBA, the courts have determined this to be the case, and the courts have ordered CA to stop doing it. Yet CA flouts the law, the courts, and contemptuously keeps on denying and/or infringing on peoples’ RKBA.
At some point people need to either accept their chains or take up arms against a corrupt and illegitimate, tyrannical government. And accepting their chains is NOT an option!
I worry about my own state (Arizona) and maintaining our Constitutional freedoms. A lot of my concern is regarding the worthless scum who trashed California, moving out of California and into my state and attempting to do the same thing they did in California here.
I say it again, the only thing liberals understand is money. $1 billion lawsuits for violation of the civil rights of an individual each and every time they do this will get their attention. Just like they do to Trump every time he tries to do something for the better of or country.
“Other” is clearly a “Bill of Attainder;” clearly “Unconstitutional.”
California residents need to grow some and create a mass extinction event for any and all that violate the UNALIENABLE right to keep and bear arms as the are nothing but your enemies and deserve nothing better then a hanging or firing squad. When the government fears the people there is freedom. When the people fear the government there is tyranny. So which is it in Commiefornia?
The way I see it, you either fight the enemy until they are no more, or they will follow you to wherever it is that you flee to because it’s what they do in their quest to stay in power and rule. Smashing your rights is how they justify it. See ‘dictator.’ Stallone as Rambo said it best, when he said, “If you’re not bringing any weapons to the fight, your not going to change anything.”
Hey, isn’t that the same department of the wretched State ofCalifornia government that used to be the feifdom of good ol’ Horizontal Harris? Camelnose herself? Now its under the reign of her handpicked successor, Becerra the Best.
This one should go up high enough Becerra will get his hide well tanned. They are behaving liie communist dictators trying to “readjust” their subjects.GO git ’em.
How long will California sheeple put up with this abuse? I don’t know, I just know I won’t. I have lived in CA for 56 years and I’m ashamed of what this state has become; morally, spiritually, and politically. At least I live in the “free zone” of northern California where a majority of residents still do not agree with the liberals in Sacramento. Our north state votes don’t matter, and we can thank the unconstitutional 1964 U.S. Supreme Court decision Reynolds versus Sims for that anarchy.