CA Gun Range Slams the Door on Lockyer
by Dave Workman
Senior Editor
Outraged Sacramento, CA,-area gunowners are striking back at Attorney General Bill Lockyer and his Department of Justice (DoJ) over Lockyer’s support of anti-gun legislation the only way they can: By closing the Folsom Shooting Club range to DoJ officers.
Justice Department employees will still be allowed to use the range when they are off duty, and other law enforcement agencies can also still use the range.
Lockyer tried to downplay the move, while the anti-gun Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence castigated the gun club for “discriminating against people simply because they have a different view on legislation.”
However, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA) jumped to the defense of the Folsom gun club. Chairman Alan Gottlieb openly questioned, “Why should law-abiding gunowners continue assisting government officials, when those same officials are working strenuously to destroy their firearm civil rights, one Draconian piece of legislation at a time?”
Chuck Michel, a spokesman for the California Rifle & Pistol Association (CRPA), told reporters, “Hopefully, the agencies and rank-and-file officers will take note and put pressure on their leaders to drop these ill-conceived proposals.”
Senate Bill 357 would require that every bullet sold in the state is microscopically serial-numbered by 2007 so that the bullet could be traced to the person who bought it if it is recovered at a crime scene. Assembly Bill 352 would mandate that all semi-automatic pistols sold in the state be engraved so that a microscopic alphanumeric code is imprinted on every expended case ejected from the gun. SB-357 is sponsored by Sen. Joe Dunn (D-Santa Ana) and AB-352 is sponsored by Assemblyman Paul Koretz (D-West Hollywood).
Gottlieb got a laugh out of the Brady Campaign’s remark about discrimination, noting to Gun Week, “They do it all the time against gunowners who disagree with their insidious gun control schemes.”
The Folsom Shooting Club operates the Sacramento Valley Shooting Center in Sloughhouse. It has been a traditional spot for local law enforcement officers to hone their shooting skills. The club reportedly has about 1,000 members.
In trying to downplay the significance of the announcement, Lockyer spokesman Nathan Barankin told The Sacramento Bee that at least 80 of the estimated 100 DoJ agents in the Sacramento area had not used the gun range during the past year because it is too expensive.
However, by closing their facility to on-duty DoJ officers, the Folsom club scored symbolic points. That obviously was not lost on the Brady Campaign and its subsidiary, the “Million” Mom March (MMM). Amanda Wilcox, a local MMM leader, said in a press release, “It is offensive that the owners of this shooting range would rather side with criminals than with law enforcement and victims. . . .”
Gunowners were quick to support the Folsom group on Internet chat groups. One person wrote on the KeepAndBearArms.com website, “Every range, dealer and ammo retailer in CA should say no to the state and local police. Maybe government will listen to them, since they don’t bother listening to regular citizens . . . perhaps we should pressure dealers to stop serving the state by refusing to buy from them unless and until they do.”
Another wrote, “The hell with MMM and the Bradys. I hope every ammo company, shooting range, gun company, gunsmiths and anybody else in the firearms industry cuts off every police, military agency as well as every other (government) agency in (California) from any services they offer. That would definitely wake them up. If this happens and they repeal these laws (if they become law) I hope they still tell these agencies to go to hell.”
On another popular forum, Packing.org, one correspondent noted in an open message to the Folsom club, “Standing up to government leftist extremism is never easy, but you’ve done the right thing.”
Another person wrote, “We need more of this. No more guns from manufacturers or distributors to LEOs or (government) agencies in CA, IL, NJ, NYC or MA till rights are recognized . . . period, end of sentence.”
Gottlieb suggested that critics of the Folsom group are out of touch with history, if nothing else.
“It is an American tradition to reject Lockyer’s brand of tyranny, and take a stand,” he observed. “The extremists at the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence think the Folsom club shouldn’t take a stand against this insidious legislation. Is that what they’d have told the patriots at Lexington or the Alamo?”
Folsom Shooting Club Vice President Ed Vernon told The Bee, “We just felt we had to take a stand. It was a statement we wanted to make as a board. Personally, I would like to see gunowners and shooters in California take more of an interest in what’s going on.”
“The Folsom Gun Club has shown courage still lives in California,” Gottlieb said, “the courage to draw a line in the sand. But Lockyer and the Brady Bunch would have the Folsom group remain silent. They’ve forgotten the wisdom of Edmund Burke, who reminded us long ago, ‘All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.’ ”
Return to Archive Index