Here is an article about California residences going to Nevada to get CCWs issued.

First, there is an online poll this page located along the right hand column titled “County Online Poll”. Click the vote button and
select “yes”. The online poll is not regional, so please forward this message to people out of state.

http://www.ocregister.com/ocr/2005/02/08/

Second, there is a corresponding “automated phone poll” that asks the same question. The phone poll will be active from 6am to 6:30pm
today only(02/8/2005). So call now!

Call: 714-550-4636
At the menu, enter: ext 7261
Select “1″ for YES.
When you call, the automated system does not state what the question, it just asks for a yes or no answer.

Here is the rest of the article. The article is somewhat negative(no
big surprise) because the tone is actually sarcastic and it tends to
mock the gun owners. Obviously, they hope that the article will sway
the polls. But the Register underestimate the strength of our
convictions. Please pass this message around as wide and as fast as
possible. Post it on discussion boards too!

http://www.ocregister.com/ocr/2005/02/08/sections/news/news/article_40
2183.php

Tuesday, February 8, 2005

The Morning Read: Concealed firepower
O.C. residents seek gun permits in Nevada that they can’t use legally here.

By GWENDOLYN DRISCOLL
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

LAUGHLIN, Nev. ? The way John Laskowski sees it, the more heat he
packs, the less likely he is to face a knife in the belly.

In 1995, the Fountain Valley water-maintenance worker was walking
near Mile Square Regional Park late at night when he was jumped by a
man with a butcher knife. The man pointed his knife at Laskowski’s
abdomen and demanded money.

“I think if I had a gun on me then, I wouldn’t have allowed him to
get that close,” says Laskowski, 55.

Instead, he surrendered his money clip while silently cursing
California’s tough gun laws, which strictly limit the carrying of
weapons.

Laskowski keeps six guns in his home, including several rifles, a
Glock 22 and a Smith & Wesson 640. Such firepower does him little
good, he says, in a state that prohibits carrying a weapon without a
Concealed Carry Weapons Permit, or CCW.

And CCWs are difficult to pry out of the tight grasp of local law
enforcement, a fact that frustrates Laskowski.

“If they outlaw guns, then only the outlaws will have guns,” he
grumbled, repeating the NRA chestnut.

A week ago, Laskowskiloaded up his pickup and headed to Nevada.

His destination: a Concealed Weapons Certification Weekend that he
and 20 other Second Amendment buffs purchased from the Avi Resort &
Casino, a pyramid-shaped complex that sits near a lazy, green curve
of the Colorado River.

For $149, Laskowski and 20 other gun enthusiasts spent two nights in
the lurid neon glow of the casino and two days in a training course
mandated for a Nevada CCW.

More than 4,600 people, 762 from out of state and most of those from
California, were issued the credit-card-size permit last year, which
enables them to ride the range in Nevada and 11 other states with
discretely hidden handguns.

For Laskowski, the guns-and-gambling weekend package – among the
first to be offered by a Western resort – was a chance to meet fellow
gun lovers while his wife, Susie, played the slots in the casino or
relaxed with her Christian mystery novel in the comfort of the
hotel’s river-view room.

Her husband won’t be able to use the gun permit back home in
California, but that’s beside the point for the former Navy
construction worker whose white whiskers and ponytail call to mind a
huskier version of Buffalo Bill.

“I’m doing it because I can,” he laughs. “I’m doing it … for
giggles.”

On the first day of class, Laskowski instantly struck up
conversations with his fellow gun lovers: mostly white men of a
certain age, at least 11 former military, seven of whom were
Californians disgruntled with their home state’s concealed-weapon
policies.

“California’s ridiculous,” Laskowski says. “It’s starting to get to
the point where they regulate your ammo, too.”

His classmates nodded their heads and rolled their eyes.

“You can get a CCW permit, but it’s like pulling gold teeth,” says
Bob Westerfield, a real estate appraiser who traveled from Riverside
to attend the training.

The men swapped shooting stories – makes, models, calibers – and
complained about gun-control laws that,they say, prevent honest
citizens from defending themselves from the “predators,” “two-legged
goblins” and “desert rats” that lurk in dark alleys and desert scrub.

Laskowski and his classmates sat rapt while course instructor Greg
Rentchler, a former investigator and full-time gun dealer whose
Toyota Tundra truck license plate reads “GLOCKEM,”
described “hydrostatic shock” – the “tsunami” of energy caused when a
bullet drives a watery wound channel through the body.

They were warned that an accidental discharge of a gun, “is not a
matter of if; it’s a matter of when,” Rentchler said.

They also learned about the vagaries of the law, in which even those
who fire a gun in self-defense can face potential prosecution.

“I would never tell you to kill someone,” Rentchler said. “But if you
shoot someone and they die, that’s one less person to show up in
court to testify against you.”

Such blunt warnings underscore the legal no-man’s land of self-
defense shootings, where gun owners must legally prove that they
were “in fear of their life,” Rentchler said.

The claim becomes harder to substantiate in difficult circumstances -
poor lighting, limited reaction time – or if the victim is younger or
smaller than the gun owner.

“Greg was trying to save our ass,” Laskowski explains later. “Say you
shoot someone and the officer comes in and you say: ‘Yeah, I blew him
away, and I’m happy about it.’ They may figure you did it for the
thrill of shooting someone.”

Laskowski and his classmates got to test their accuracy on the second
day of training on a sloping hill overlooking the Mojave Valley.
While Rentchler watched, students fired their guns – more than 30 in
all – at a fiberboard target.

“I did OK,” Laskowski says, displaying a torso-size paper target
riddled with bullet holes.

He headed to Las Vegas the next day to submit his paperwork, the
final step in the CCW process.

“Does having (a CCW permit) make a difference? It’s hard to
characterize it,” Laskowski says. “It just kinda does.”

Although he still has to watch his step, especially when he works
nights, “The training that you go through tells you to be more
alert,” Laskowski says.

“It makes you more realistic that there are bad guys out there.”