Los Angeles County, CA March 7, 2000 Election
Smart Voter

Gun Rights, Gun Control, Crime, Racism and the Second Amendment

By Liz Michael

Candidate for Member of the State Assembly; District 43

This information is provided by the candidate
"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
Such a small sentence. Yet these twenty-seven words form the cornerstone of our Republic. The founders of the United States were wise. They knew that men holding power, without a check and balance against tyranny, would be prone to use power to the profit of themselves and the abuse of the people.

So they carefully crafted these twenty-seven words. Twenty-seven words which are the cornerstone of our Republic. For without them we have no America. We all know that the Second Amendment plainly says that the right to BOTH KEEP and BEAR arms shall not be infringed. Few of us have observed though, the WHY of what the Constitution says. Yet there it is in ink and parchment: NECESSARY TO THE SECURITY OF A FREE STATE.

The Second Amendment is not about hunting ducks and deer. It is about arms being held in private hands as a check and balance against a tyrannical government. Understandably, the politicians of today don't want you to know that, because of their own tyrannical intentions. The Second Amendment is a basic civil right -- not a privilege doled out by politicians for good behavior. And I am the only candidate in this election who believes it.

Four Of My Five Opponents Support Gun Control

And one of them is a Republican. This is why it is critical that people who value freedom elect me.

Crime and Guns

Criminals fear one thing above all others. It is neither a cop, nor a judge. It is not prison, nor even a lethal injection. Criminals FEAR WARM LEAD DELIVERED BY COLD STEEL at the hand of their intended victim. And so that they receive as much of that as possible, it is critical to encourage the honest citizen to be armed and trained to use said arms.

No gun laws should be aimed at law-abiding citizens: gun laws should be aimed at real criminals and only real criminals.

Gun Laws Counterproductive

Restrictions on firearms ownership by law abiding citizens are counterproductive in the prevention of crime, as are these programs which offer rewards for turning in guns, thereby stripping the citizenry of their defense against the criminal element. In addition, such policies place individuals and their families at risk, not only against criminals, but against wild predatory animals which may attack their family members, their pets, or their livestock. We want fewer arms in the hands of the criminal, not a disarmed private citizen, and these laws have the reverse effect.

Guns, like drugs, save lives and money. Research shows that citizens use guns two and a half to five times more often to prevent crimes than to commit them... Indeed, firearms are the most effective way to protect oneself against criminals - which is why police carry guns rather than going unarmed or carrying knives.

Concealed Carry Licenses

If elected to the State Assembly, I will spearhead an effort to enact Concealed Carry Licenses as well as legislation mandating reciprocal recognition of out of state and international gun licenses. A statewide CCL would allow a resident of a gun control locality to bypass difficult and often racist local permit laws. Moreover, I would allow individuals with CCL's to carry weapons inside their vehicles as a protection against carjacking and kidnapping. When enacted in Florida, such a policy caused murder to decrease by 21%.

Rescind Oppressive Laws

I advocate the repeal of any ban or waiting period on law-abiding citizens posessing firearms: such law is bad law and policy which accomplishes nothing and is unconstitutional. I also oppose registration of handguns on several grounds: it is a tremendous government expense which does nothing to avert crime, and is a first step toward confiscation. I also oppose bills taxing ammunition, bills banning police trades, and support a state law making these restrictions and requirements for citizen registries invalid. Such requirements are not necessary to track weapons used in crime: most weapons have heavy private traceability because of the day-to-day recordkeeping of gun sellers. The aim of such bills is to restrict freedom, and the people pushing them are fascists.

Civil Disobedience Against Unconstitutional Gun Laws

I was the first legislator or candidate for the legislature in California to call for civil disobedience against the recent spate of gun control laws, which banned weapons already legally purchased by California citizens, thus making them defacto criminals if they fail to "turn in their weapons" through either lack of knowledge or willfullness. We will no longer follow these unconstitutional laws. The California legislature has crossed a "line in the sand" beyond which we will no longer respect. They have made the law an ass. Unless those of us who can stand up to them in civil disobedience and say, "no more", we will never be able to protect ourselves, our families, and our country against these tyrants.

Prohibit Nuisance Lawsuits

If elected to the Assembly I would introduce legislation to prevent entities from suing firearms manufacturers when their defectless products are criminally misused or used in accidental shootings. There is a bevy of these suits being planned by cities: cities who should be addressing not the gun manufacturers, but their own police incompetence and misconduct, and their own climate of violence in which gun incidents are likely to occur.

Rescind The Domestic Violence Gun Ban

I advocate the rescinding of the recently passed federal domestic violence gun-control law, the law stripping any individual of their Second Amendment rights if they have had even a misdemeanor domestic violence. This has resulted in ridiculous results, such as stripping police officers and security guards of their weapons. It is also an ex post facto law, a penalty for crimes committed prior to the bill's passage, and therefore ought to be unconstitional. If the individuals covered by this new law are so dangerous that they deserve to be deprived of basic civil liberties, then they should be in prison. If they are not dangerous, then the government has no more right to take away their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms than it does to deprive them of their First Amendment rights to free speech or freedom of religion.

Weapons Bans

My interpretation of the second amendment is that the law enforcement authorities and the military are not entitled to bear weapons banned of the general public. When the army and the cops and feds give up their guns, I'll think about giving up mine, and not sooner. It applies to all weapons, as far as I am concerned.

The founders clearly felt that private people needed access to and ownership of heavy military weaponry and I can hardly disagree with them. Fact of the matter is, you can never prevent tyrants from having weapons, so the only check against that is that EVERYONE have access to them. Besides, retired military personnel can never have their brains sapped of the knowledge of war when they become private citizens again. So there are always going to be civilians with military knowledge. As Timothy McVeigh demonstrated. And he did not need a gun to kill 168 people.

Gun Laws are Racist

If every Negro in the Old South had a few firearms, the Ku Klux Klan would NEVER have been able to accomplish many of the treacheries they did. Dare I say, that slavery itself could not have existed had not the Negro been legally deprived of their firearm rights. And nothing has changed, as laws in cities with large black populations, like New York, Washington, and Pasadena, have firearms regulations so severe, yet do little but "determine what color you are" so that you can be discriminated against by law enforcement. It is the bigots and wackos out there, whom unless they violate a criminal law you will never be able to quantify, that top the list of reasons why everyone else should be armed.

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