I was sitting on the back patio just now, enjoying the quiet evening, warm with a nice breeze, the air fresh despite the haze from the wildfires raging elsewhere in California; my pipe sent milk-white streams of Amphora up to dissipate in the sunset-gilded redwoods and pines above me. I was sipping Scotch and rereading Heller with ever-broader grins, when the phone rang.
It was one of our employees. Last week, she’d gone in for an endoscopy to test for cancer. Because of an awful insurance mixup she didn’t have the money to pay for it. Long story short, we broke a rule and loaned it to her, no interest. She was calling to tell me that the results showed she was cancer-free. She said, “I feel as though a giant weight’s been lifted off my shoulders.”
As I hung up with her, I glanced down at the Heller decision and said to the air, “I do too.”
From being in one of the most oppressed States in the Union, aching to leave the state to protect my firearms rights but torn because I love living here, the Heller decision’s transformed me and every other California gun owner. We’re now, by chance and geography, on the front line of the firearms civil rights battle for the next ten years at least. There are nonprofit civil-rights groups forming to fund new lawsuits, existing organizations fighting legislative battles in Sacramento and throughout the state, and they all need my support, and the support of every California gun owner and gun owners nationwide — whether in the form of money; phone calls and letters; volunteer labor; helping to fill the media, new and old, with the message that this is a civil right, as valued as any other; or even merely taking steps to make gun ownership more visible, more acceptable in California’s public discourse. We need it all.
Why? The big cases establishing once and for all that “assault-weapons” bans, magazine-capacity restrictions, arbitrary restrictions on concealed carry, handgun registration in the name of “safety,” you name it, are unconstitutional — they’re going to come from California.
Why on earth would I want to leave now?
Hey, you, free-staters! Move to California and join the fight!
This next month I will finally do something that I have waited far too long to do. I will become a Life Member of the NRA. About 7 years ago I was listening to NPR, (I’ve since quit, because all it did was piss me off), when I heard some gun grabber from New York talk about suing the gun manufactureres. I immediatley joined the NRA. Since, my membership has elapsed. My dad was an NRA Life Member. I have waited too long. I have allready applied for a concealed carry permit in my state, and have had my first lesson in pistol self defense from a firearms instructor. I have decided on a Sig Saur P229 DAK in 40 Smith and Wesson. God bless America and its constitution!
Good on you, Winmag! That money will be more than well-spent, as the suit filed today in San Francisco demonstrates.
Too true David. I was just coming to a similar realization myself. I heard an ad on the radio for Arizona land, and realized it suddenly held no appeal. “Why would I move there? The fight is here now!”
It’s a good feeling.
Well, fortunately or unfortunately, the die is already cast for me, and I will be headed out of Kalifornistan sometime next month.
That said, I wish you all who remain here the best of luck… these will be interesting times indeed, and the promise for a great deal of progress is definitely at hand.
Love the reference to the Curry painting of John Brown, Tragic Prelude.
It’s really quite something to see in person (it’s huge), if you ever make it to Topeka. Probably the only reason to go there, ever.
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