Not Just Gun Control: CA Lawmakers Implement Phone Control

LAPD Cell phone (Lord Jim / Flickr / CC)
Lord Jim / Flickr / CC

On Jaunary 1 a new regulation went into effect mandating that California drivers “no longer … hold their cellphones in their hands for any reason.”

In other words, even if you are not texting or talking on your phone, you are barred from holding the phone to sift through photos, music playlists, or material on other applications.

The new phone regulation is in addition to four new California firearm regulations that went into effect on January 1 as well.
According to The Sacramento Bee, the new law still allows phones to be used in cars, as long as the phones are operated “hands-free.” This “often means voice activated and operated.” But the “phones must be mounted on the dashboard or windshield or console.”Once the phone is mounted, the new regulation allows the driver touch his or her phone one time to “activate or deactivate a feature or function … with the motion of a single swipe or tap of the driver’s finger.”
Drivers quickly questioned the enforceability of the law, especially the limitation on touching the phone one time to activate it. Lyft driver James Turner asked, “How are they going to tell if you swiped (only) once?”
On January 1 Breitbart News reported that four new gun regulations took effect in California. The Bee noted that confusion surrounded the new gun controls in a year where the legislature passed one set of gun laws for law-abiding citizens while the state — via ballot initiative — passed another. But the following four regulations certainly went into effect January 1:
  1. A new law that makes it “a crime to falsely report a firearm has been lost or stolen.”
  2. A new law that makes it “illegal, with limited exceptions, to loan guns to anyone outside of immediate family members.”
  3. A new start date for the new definition of “assault weapons” (a ban on “bullet buttons” included).
  4. A new ” requirement that handguns be stored in a locked container or locked trunk when left in an unattended vehicle.”
AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of “Bullets with AWR Hawkins,” a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.

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