O.K. confession time. I’m about to lose all my anti-gun readers.
I bought a rifle in 1974 because the two black leaders of the Prisoners Union threatened my life. I cut off their use of a rental car because they no longer had foundation grants to cover the rent of their office in the building I managed or their other expenses. So to them, I should obviously be killed.
I went to Sears and bought an M1 rifle and ammunition and rode home with it on the back of my motorcycle. After a few hours of thinking about it, I returned the rifle to Sears. I decided I was much smarter than the two black thugs and could out smart them on this threat to my life.
About 2 years ago, 2013 I decided again that I needed a rifle. My view of the coming civil war suggested that it would begin soon. It is still in its incipient stages. I expect my neighborhood in the Gay Castro district to be a central battle zone.
Just reading the online requirements for me to buy a rifle was shocking. In California all transactions involving firearms must be made through a dealer of record. Even passing on a firearm to a child after a death requires a dealer of record..
The dealer will charge for any transaction, usually $75. The dealer requires proof of age (over 18 for a rifle), proof of residence such as utility bills and a driver’s license.
Also proof is required of a Handgun Safety Certificate. Then you have to wait 10 days. If you order a firearm online it must be sent by the online seller to the address of a dealer.
I read the pamphlet for the Handgun Safety Certificate which makes all the state laws and punishments explicit.
I found a dealer outside of San Francisco who could receive a rifle for me from an online store. It could not include a cartridge holding more than ten bullets and had to be on an approved California list of acceptable rifles. Many gun manufacturers won’t make weapons to sell in California.
I met my dealer in a Starbucks outside San Francisco after he notified me he had received the rifle. It took half an hour to fill out the paperwork including a thumbprint and a photo. The rifle was in his new Mercedes trunk.
Getting the rifle home required a locked case which the dealer sold me. Once at home I needed a more secure locked case under San Francisco law.
For ammunition I had to have the online seller send it to a friend outside San Francisco. San Francisco doesn’t allow the delivery of ammunition to its citizens. The last and only gun shop in San Francisco closed this month.
After this massive rigamarole I decided that California gun laws were too stringent. What criminal would bother with this bureaucratic nightmare? So I sent a donation off to the National Rifle Association political wing, their Institute for Legislative Action.
You can stop reading my blog if this offends you.