Los Angeles Times Opposes 'Pointless' Open Carry Ban AB 1527

"Leave your rifles at the door: California's needless gun-ban bill"

The Los Angeles Times editorial said that "Pointless legislation is, unfortunately, endemic to Sacramento. Portantino is taking aim at a problem that doesn't exist, and that's a shameful waste of time given the number of genuine problems that need solving."

The same could be said of the ban on openly carried unloaded handguns passed by the California Legislature last year which the Los Angeles Times supported.

In 1967, California passed a law making it a crime to openly carry a loaded firearm in public. The 1967 law, coupled with the recently enacted law on openly carrying an unloaded handgun means that it is illegal to openly carry a handgun, loaded or unloaded, throughout much of the state.

The 1967 ban on openly carrying loaded firearms in public places is now facing a challenge to its constitutionality in Federal Court in a Civil Rights lawsuit brought by Charles Nichols - President of California Right To Carry, a California non-profit. There is a hearing scheduled for May 29th .

While California is preparing to ban all firearms from being openly carried in public, Oklahoma is poised to repeal its ban on openly carried firearms which was passed in 1971.

The Oklahoma legislation was killed in committee last year when the National Rifle Association came out in opposition to the bill. That's right, the National Rifle Association opposes Open Carry.

You may recall that last year NRA attorney Chuck Michel testified before a state Committee that if the bill were passed he would file a lawsuit seeking to overturn it.

Mr. Michel of course had no intention of doing so as he currently has a lawsuit pending before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals where he is arguing to preserve California's 1967 ban on Open Carry.

This hasn't stopped the NRA from soliciting donations to "fight" the Open Carry bans. There is an old saying in politics that if you can't drink their whiskey, eat their food, take their money and then vote against them then you don't belong in politics.

The NRA supported the 1967 ban on Open Carry. In the past year and a half it has opposed legislation which would repeal Open Carry bans in the few states which ban Open Carry; Arkansas, South Carolina, Florida, Texas and Oklahoma.

The NRA and the so-called gun rights groups need gun-control laws. How else would they raise the millions of dollars these bloated bureaucracies need just to keep their doors open. According to Wayne LaPierre the Vice President of the NRA, his organization spends nearly one million dollars a day on overhead.

Which is why the NRA opposes Mr. Nichols lawsuit seeking to overturn the 1967 California ban on Loaded Open Carry.

CaliforniaRightToCarry.org.