In November, California voters passed Prop 47 as an effort to fix prison overcrowding. That proposition has now taken center stage because one of the fixes contained in it is a ban on felony charges for stealing a firearm worth less than $950.
The new punishment “is not much worse” than what a driver would receive for “running a red light.”
So the fix eliminates charges that would lead to prison time on the one hand, but it opens the door to petty treatment for thieves of numerous handguns, including those made by Glock, Kahr, Ruger, Springfield, Taurus, Sig Sauer, and Smith & Wesson, on the other.
These are not “Saturday Night Special” or “Junk” pistols; these are quality firearms that criminals can now steal with impunity.
According to The Sacramento Bee, Assemblywoman Melissa Melendez (R-Lake Elsinore) and Assemblyman Adam Gray (D-Merced) have put forth AB 150 to rectify this situation, changing the law so that all gun thefts are treated as “grand theft.”
The absence of punishment for the theft of guns is a slap in the face for law-abiding citizens who continuously watch their rights being eroded by gun control. After all, gun control is ultimately the punishment on the law-abiding, not the criminal. And until Melendez and Gray offered AB 150, California’s demonstrable position was more gun control requirements for law-abiding citizens, less punishment for gun thieves.
Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
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