LA Times: “If California voters approve stronger gun control, the message sent at the ballot box will be heard across the U.S.” That’s the whole idea. They are trying to send a message to politicians that the people want more gun control, and they are being successful at doing so. It won’t matter that the only reason they are being successful is because Bloomberg is willing to spend big money. You can lament the ballot all you want, and I certainly don’t believe in lawmaking by referendum, but Bloomberg picked a strategy where money is king, and he’s executing on it very well. He is exactly what I long feared: someone with the both the money and strategic thinking to understand where and how to fight.
The reality is this: the one thing that correlates strongly to whether or not you reflexively do or don’t support gun control (and for most people, who don’t spend 10 minutes thinking about political issues, it’s reflexive) is whether you own a gun. California Democrats have been using red tape to frustrate people out of owning firearms for the past 30 years, and they’ve largely succeeded. Those who were most passionate have, by now, left the Golden State for more permissive states. With each encroachment, it becomes harder and harder to stay and fight.
They are trying to repeat this in more and more states. They’ve likely succeeded in tipping Colorado. They are tipping Washington State. They’ve started tipping Oregon. They are now trying to tip Maine and Nevada this election. Who will be next? When will our people abandon the cartoon reality pushed by conservative media and actually get serious? I suppose we shall see.
I don’t see it. NOBODY things California is indicative of the rest of the country, especially on guns. So what if they vote yes? It was a stronger argument when Washington did it, but I still don’t see them moving across the country.
Sure, gun owners are leaving California, but they are moving to stronger states. Those states are getting more pro-gun. We are getting more constitutional carry states.
The division may be increasing, with blue states getting bluer and red states getting redder. But the red states are growing stronger, and there are more of them. I don’t see them tipping red states because California voted yes on gun control.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not arguing we should be complacent. We still need to fight. But I just don’t see this specific thing as that big of a deal.
Should California pass a gun control ballot initiative the lamestream media will cover and hurrah the fact for the next fifty-plus years. It won’t be indicative except that they-them-those will repeat the news of its passage until our eyes and ears are bleeding. It is a big deal.
The list of people I know leaving in the next 90 days is huge. Arizona being the largest receiver. I will back in PA. One is heading to SC, one to Tennessee.
I watched friends from NJ jump to PA 10 years ago.
My prediction is the southern states will rise again, since they will have all the guns and all the manufacturers by then.
And I suspect that they might be joined by the West, who also have a lot of guns, and would very much like the land that properly belongs to them (and is held unConstitutionally by the Feds, to boot…)
That creep Skelton is an anti-gun extremist who has been pushing gun control at the LA Times since damned near forever. Maybe even as far back as 1989 when the tide of gun-control really began to roll over California.
Whether the Newsom anti-gun referendum passes or not really doesn’t make much difference to Californians, it’s just making the rubble bounce. The Democratic Party dominated City governments and the State Government have already gone nuts on gun-control since 2012, with no end point yet in sight.
Nationally, the Ruling Class News Media might try to claim some kind of popular nationwide mandate based on the referendum passing. But what happens in a deep Blue State isn’t truly relevant to the majority of American opinion and Red State America should understand that. If anything what happens in California should be a warning to the rest of the nation of how extremist the national agenda truly is of the Gun-Control Movement, and what an absolute failure that agenda is to deliver on its promises of peace and safety.
No, the real coup will be the election of Hillary. A candidate elected while openly running on an anti-gun agenda. On that the RCNM will really run wild with talk of a “tipping point for gun control”.
Besides, the media will spin the election results to their liking regardless of the outcome. Remember how they spun the passage of the anti-gay marriage referendum, California Proposition 8, back in 2008?
However the power of the Ruling Class News Media to convince the Nation it is raining when the Left is actually pissing down on us, is in serious jeopardy. This election cycle might be the final nail in the coffin of RCNM credibility.
I thought the domino theory of communism was pretty much debunked years ago…
It’s all comic books all the time, Sebastian. Small wonder Jack Chick died: his work here is done.
They can only do a ballot initiative in 26 States.
https://ballotpedia.org/States_with_initiative_or_referendum
Fortunately NOT in my state. (South Carolina)