Article on a California gun purchase experience

[Frostbite]

I know he's trying to add a touch of humor, but the trouble is, I can't tell what is real in this story.

I don't know if things have changed since I bought my pistol a year ago here in California, but my experience was much different from his.

10 day waiting, of course.

Paperwork, yes. Fortunately, I purchased at a gun shop familiar with the process and known for moving people along through it.

But retinal scan? DNA sample? 45 minute verbal interrogation? Repeat questioning when picking the weapon up?

Hyperbole or honest account of an overly aggressive company policy?

The trouble is, articles like this do just as much harm as good. The gun grabbers can discount the article by pointing to the fact that this is not the accurate process. Credibility is lost as the author is reduced to the boy who cried wolf.

A sober reflection of the actual process is bad enough, so why embellish and weaken the message?

Well, it's definitely an exaggeration for comic effect. I've bought a new handgun within the last 30 days and while it's fairly straightfoward process, it's certainly a lot more forms and paperwork than in my home state of Washington.

The thing that amazes me are the inconsistencies in what's expected of you. In order to buy a handgun here, you need to show your California driver's license but you also need a secondary proof of residence in the form of an auto registration, current residential lease, utility bill, etc. I've bought 5 handguns since I moved here and there's never been a problem with just my license and auto registration. The last time, since the address on my license doesn't match the address on my registration, they wanted an additional proof of residence. My license hasn't matched my registration on any of my previous purchases but suddenly now it's a problem. And I've purchased from this shop before!

I always hear how anti-gun California is but I think it's mostly the laws and lawmakers that are anti-gun. Everyone I've met that knows I'm a gun owner and regular shooter hasn't seemed phased by the fact. I don't know a lot of fellow gun owners but I haven't met any rabid anti-gun people either. It makes me wonder if these laws were allowed to pass because people are truly anti-gun or just apathetic because it doesn't affect them.

 

[Guardian]

Just as aside...

My family moved to Denver in the early 1970's from Central Illinois. Denver was considered a 'cow town' then, un-hip, and aside from ski bums in Aspen, no one wanted to live there.

It was 'discovered' by Californians when the CA economy first got bad in the late 1980's, and they moved in by the tens of thousands. The first thing they did was set about making Colorado just as miserable as the state they left. They got on local school boards and ran for local elections, and before you know it, it was illegal to transport a firearm in your vehicle in Denver city limits. Ever. Under any circumstances, assembled or disassembled. When I moved to Denver as a child, there were still freaky old left-over mountain men who'd come to town armed, for God's sake. When I was in high school in Golden, CO, we had rifle racks in the back windows of our pickup trucks, with actual rifles in them. Not anymore.

When I got married, my wife lived in Albuquerque and I moved there. I love Albuquerque, but starting in 2001 or so, it also started filling up with Californians. And it's the same thing all over again. The California left-wing morons show up and try to change things to make them just as miserable as the state they left.

I feel for non-lefty Californians, but for the rest of those buffoons - I can't stand 'em. The amazing part is, people who live in places like San Francisco and Berkeley think THEY are normal!!! They have no idea how out-of-touch they are with the rest of the country. At least they don't think they are superior to everyone else like the NYC liberals, but they're just as bad in their own way.

Now I live in Michigan and North Carolina. The western part of NC is filling up with fleeing New Yorkers (and yes, they're destroying the joint and they were causing runaway house inflation until the recent depression began) but so far they are staying out of Michigan - along with everyone else.

And I say GOOD! It's the last refuge outside of Idaho and Montana for decent people. Californians, stay out. New Yorkers, go home. Beat it! Shoo! Take your shar pei dogs and your idiotic meadow muffin tree huggin granola crunchin save the planet crap and GET OUT! GO HOME! You made your own state miserable, so LIVE IN IT YOURSELVES.

Hey, you left out Texas, we still believe and we don't allow people from either of those two states to set up home here. LOL