Between A Rock And A Hard Place
by Tony Monanarella
CRPA Board Member, Law Enforcement Committee

Thanks to the California Legislature and Governor Davis, thousands of law
abiding Californians became criminals on January 1st. These people did not
rob banks or steal cars, or shoplift. They owned a piece of property they may
have owned for years and did not misuse or forfeit their right to continue to
own this piece of property.

They are otherwise decent citizens with families and lives reflective of
mainstream America. They go to church or synagogue and pay taxes like all
responsible citizens. They are about to become criminals because they own
semiautomatic rifles, shotguns or handguns that because of purely cosmetic
features, must be registered with the Department of Justice or they are
illegal. These guns have been branded as “assault weapons,” primarily by the
media and anti-gun politicians.

Make no mistake; any gun is dangerous in the wrong hands. So, why not just
register the guns? I agree, register the guns like the law says and you can
keep your gun. The problem is that the current law is so confusing and
ambiguous that people may be in violation without even knowing it. That’s
what happens when you have self-serving, anti-gun politicians who don’t have
a clue about firearms except that they don’t like them.

The politicians tout this law as being an anti-crime measure, yet it has no
effect on criminals who rarely use such weapons and aren’t going to register
them anyway. If you think about it, it’s a pro-crime measure, since it will
add thousands of new criminals to the criminal justice system.

The law has nothing to do with machine guns or silencers or anything else
that directly contributes to the lethality of the guns. A gun must be
registered because it has pistol grip, folding stock, flash suppresser or
some other cosmetic feature that has nothing to do with lethality. In fact,
if these features are removed, the gun need not be registered. Again I am not
advocating that people not register their guns. Unfortunately, it’s the law
and if you want to remain a law-abiding citizen you should comply. Mine is a
personal choice….

I have been a Police Officer in Orange County for eleven years. I love my job
and take what I do very seriously. I derive genuine enjoyment from putting
criminals in jail, where they belong. I believe in Honor, Duty, Truth and
Loyalty. I believe in what I said when I took The Oath of Office. I am
honored that I have been entrusted with such responsibility and power.

The California Penal Code gives me the power to use my own discretion and
judgment when it comes to enforcing certain types of laws. I have made a
personal decision not to enforce the “Assault Weapon” registration law
against otherwise law-abiding citizens. How can I do that? I just won’t ask.
If I come across a normal citizen with a gun that should be registered and
he/she is doing nothing wrong, I just won’t ask if it’s registered. You
better believe I will enforce it against criminals. That’s the way it should
be. I am convinced that the whole purpose of the law is to take guns away
from people, to disarm them. I don’t want any part of that. I will enforce
laws against career criminals who should not be in our communities, let alone
have guns.

So why are people so opposed to registering their guns with the state?
Besides the fact that the law is confusing and fundamentally unfair, most gun
owners are inherently suspicious of the government ordering them to register
the guns they own. Any guns. The state would achieve much more compliance if
it had done two things when it wrote the law. Made it simple and easy to
understand and have stated in the text of the law, that none of the
registration information could be used to confiscate or outlaw the possession
of legally owned guns. This would have gone a long way to put the fears of
owners to rest. The state did neither and now it’s up to cops like me to
clean up the mess.

Recent statements about the law by its author, State Senator Don Perata, also
concern me. He stated that he really did not expect people to comply with the
law and if they wanted to keep their guns without registering them, they
should move to another state. Well, Senator, this is America and last time I
checked, California is still part of the union and law abiding Californians
can live wherever they want, they don’t need your permission.

I love the irony of the whole thing. When the law finally passed last year,
Governor Davis signed it with much pomp and ceremony. He touted it as a blow
to criminals. The Department of Justice has been working for months to
fine-tune the law and make it workable, to no avail. But it all comes down to
cops like me. Despite all the efforts of state government, I have the final
say on what to do. I have decided what I am going to do. I am going to stay
true to the Constitution, my oath, myself and the decent, hardworking gun
owners of this state. I call on every Law Enforcement Officer in this state
to do the same. We are on the front lines. We know what to do.
______________________________________________________

Between A Rock And A Hard Place
[ http://www.crpa.org/apr01rock.html ]
Between A Rock….