It's hard to keep my keyboard silent on this. I lurk on this site because it has so much to offer on techniques, professional opinions and the current state of the imaging industry which thrills me. For all that I've learned and gleaned from you people, I am deeply grateful. I'm not a professional; I am purely an amateur who has a degree from a little college of photography in Santa Barbara from a long time ago - and have pursued photography and printing for 40+ years... all for my own, personal satisfaction. But here in the Coffee Corner we have an emotional thread about gun violence, gun control and the socio-political culture of America in regards to those issues. This I am acquainted with on a professional level.
What I am is Law Enforcement. I am an Armorer/Gunsmith for a major police agency in Northern California. And I have been for almost 3 decades (after 12 years of military service). And my state is one of those benchmark governments who try to pass as much gun restriction as the Court and the public can endure. In fact, our Governor just signed 6 more bills into law to further restrict everything from ammunition sales to the sale of newly-designated "assault rifles." Now we could sit here and re-argue every philosophical point in the book about whether gun ownership is bad, is good, is stupid, or whatever. That's an endless circle anymore. The two opposing sides in this country are mentally entrenched with debate impossible. So I'm not going to.
What I will tell you, and I think I pretty much reflect the opinions of my colleagues in this state, is that the laws we are passing have absolutely no effect on our safety, on crime, or on gun violence in California whatsoever. All the new laws do is limit the access to firearms and ammunition to good citizens who do not commit the crimes that generated these new restrictions to start with. The ever-growing volume of gun prohibitions in this state have done nothing more than punish everyone BUT the criminals who deserve it. And since 1989 and the Roberti-Roos Assault Rifle Act they haven't had any measurable affect on violent crime rates in this state, either. Making the AR15 style rifle illegal will never impede a criminal or vicious person from getting one; ammunition restrictions will never prevent him/her from loading up that rifle, either. As a law enforcement member, I would like to see a change of tactic in our legislatures... and that would be punishing the criminals who use firearms to victimize the rest of the country. And do it severely... without applying another ponderous set of regulations on a hundred million gun owners in this country.
This is but my humble opinion so take it as you will. In fifteen months I retire and most of my shooting will be with my cameras at that point.
