— Don Perata, State Senator from Alameda, is one of California’s leading demagogues on gun control. The local paper, the Contra Costa Times, well and truly slammed his sorry ass today:
WITH ALL THE significant and unsolved problems facing the California Legislature, one wonders why some members waste their time on senseless measures that solve nothing while needlessly irritating a segment of the population.
The latest bit of nonsense comes from Sen. Don Perata, D-Oakland, the person who helped concoct the disastrous Coliseum deal with the Raiders. His most recent bit of mischief is a proposal to put a measure on the November ballot that seeks to impose a nickel-a-bullet tax on every round of ammunition sold in California.
My friend Rod Wright, Calfornia’s leading champion of the Second Amendment, likes to point out that people living in gang neighborhoods don’t get the same kind of police protection that liberals in gated communities get, so guns are essential for their security. In light of that fact, Perata’s latest tax really is an attack on the working poor, just like the cigarette tax. And no, this isn’t a myth – I once walked precincts for an opponent of Sheila Kuehl’s in the western hills of LA, where the anti-gun liberals proudly sport signs saying their houses are protected by an armed response company.
“My friend Rod Wright, Calfornia’s leading champion of the Second Amendment, likes to point out that people living in gang neighborhoods don’t get the same kind of police protection that liberals in gated communities get, so guns are essential for their security. In light of that fact, Perata’s latest tax really is an attack on the working poor”
What a nonsensical conclusion. If anything is an attack on the working poor it is the fact that policing in their neighbourhoods is so bad. You solve this problem by improving the policing, thus reducing the need for private weaponry.
The best policing strives for about a ten-minute response time. With a crackhead at the door, I’ll take my Winchester over 911 every time, thank you very much.
Mr. King
I lived in a very dangerous part of Chicago for 12 years (Roosevelt Rd. and Damen Ave.). My observations are that if a homeowner is armed there is less likelyhood of a violent crime being committed. The unspoken assumption about guns and the poor is that the poor cannot be trusted with guns. Once your poor you are an instant criminal. The overwhelming (95%+) of the residents where I lived were law abidding citizens, just poor. If they had the ability to defend themselves there would have been alot less crime. Rising ammo prices constrict that ability. Oh, yeah – even without the ability to own firearms, Chicago lead big cities in the number of murders (We’re number 1 !!!!!!) with 668 in 2001. Police solve crimes after they happen, they very, very rarely prevent them. Got that from the police officers in my Naval Reserve unit. It wasn’t Mr. Bennett’s opinion that was nonsensical Mr. King. It was yours.
Richard Cook
Something else, Mr. King might want to explore WHY cops are not going into poor minority areas. Every time they make a bust there self appointed “leaders” scream racism and politicians back off from enforcing the laws so stringently in some areas. If your a cop it keeps your blood pressure down if you are reading the news in your squad car under a nice big tree.