Just make a campaign contribution to Lee Baca.
As Glenn notes, this is why the sheriff should have no such arbitrary power, which is only prevented by “shall issue.” Particularly since California took away open carry, making it almost impossible to defend yourself outside your home, I’d think that this would be ripe for a court challenge under Heller as a Second-Amendment breach.
almost impossible to defend yourself outside your home
Almost, only because they can’t figure out how to make you completely helpless. I’d carry a heavy cane.
Yeah, ken that would work HOW, if you were driving or in a store, restaurant or bar that’s being held up? The only good defense against a guy with a gun, IS a gun. A cane, baton, or brass knuckles are close in hand-to-hand defense. I’ve got an antique bamboo cane with a 20″ sword in it, but I still carry my pistol everywhere it’s allowed.
Normally I’d agree with you, but here’s the deal. If somebody has a gun and wants to shoot you it really is a flight or fight situation depending on distance, type of firearm, terrain and other such things. Ducking and hiding is just a way to die if they can come up on you. An aggressive response may be your only chance.
In my case, getting shot would really piss me off. If I have a cane, you’d better not be within 20 feet of me, or you’d better be a damned good shot. Because I intend to kill the bastard and would have a fair shot at doing it. If I were in a crowd of such folk, the gunman is dead for certain.
Yeah, I’d rather have a gun, but the point is they are taking them away.
We should actually turn the entire thing around.
Require certification from a non-governmental agency for the police.
This is how lifeguarding works. And I think EMT as well. There are other hiring hurdles, but the Red Cross Lifeguard/CPR/First Aid certification is used.
How would it affect “Police Brutality” if they’re going before a citizen board for the right to be an armed peace officer?
And any suits about how one was screwed out of a certification aren’t against an entity that can use sovereign immunity. Which pushes towards objective testing.
Not a bad idea since most of a police officers job does not include shooting at people. However, I wonder how the bad guys would react knowing most officers were unarmed?
Given the shooting skills of current cops, yes.
But I imagine they might have some interest in becoming competent shots when the alternative is walking the beat naked.
For centuries cops have walked the beat without guns. Their most important weapon is between their ears.
Campaign contributions like this are just a form of bribery that politicians made legal. It’s also known as “pay to play” where elected officials demand money in exchange for doing what they’re already paid to do – their jobs. A sewage pit by any other name smells just as bad.
Corruption from top to bottom. Yet, we live in such an environment that pointing it out makes you a crackpot subject to ridicule.
Back when we were all ‘Kung Fu Fighting’ I connected a couple of dowel rods with a light weight chain and got pretty good with them. Then a CA cop caught me hitchhiking, found in my backpack and decided it was his. I wonder if he got good with them?
You’re lucky that he just confiscated them; they’re illegal in CA outside of certain environments, as are a number of other variants of a big stick.
That was almost 40 years ago. I doubt the laws were that specific then.
My copy of The Anarchist Cookbook warns that they were illegal in California. That was in 1971. Of course, things have gotten even more restrictive since then.
Yeah, early ’70’s. I remember some of the courtroom testimony about how dangerous martial-arts weapons were and how criminals favored them.
… which challenge is currently at the 9th Circuit after oral arguments in December, 2012. See Peruta v County of San Diego and Richards v Prieto.
If it weren’t so sad about your self-made “nunchucks,” I’d LOL, Ken. Lost a good axe handle that way on my way into L. A. back around that same time.