It looks like the California government is trying to round up as many ARs as they can before Trump has chance to turn his attention to this 2A issue.
FFLs are getting busted for importing guns that needed to be modified before they were California legal. The manufacturers had sent the special California Bullet Button separately.
A Fresno FFL got busted for importing guns that needed to be modified before they were California legal. The mfr sent the Bullet Button separately. This is commonly done for every part, which is non-standard and must be installed by the dealer to fit an individual's hand or adapt to the local Customs or a particular usage.
At the time you could import guns with a Bullet Button only, and it had to be installed at the manufacturer.
This last bit was a legal clarification that came out after the fact (l remember that famous line in the Constitution about ex post facto laws... but only China or the US government it's big enough to sue California. Neither one is helping.)
After the ex post facto clarification, local dealers and gunsmiths knew they were not allowed to install Bullet buttons in order to keep non-compliant ARs compliant, unless (in theory because I have read discussions both ways on this) gun was registered as an assault weapon and no one wanted to do that.
Lots of guys had put on a Bullet Button, as they didn't want to get busted just for not having one whether they're AR needed it or not.
You could not legally ship the gun back to the manufacturer to have a Bullet Button installed, because non-Bullet Button guns could not be exported or imported. (...except for manufacturer warranty repairs, for which you had to pay an import fee and an export fee to send your gun back. It cost you about $75 round trip to the state of Cal, plus shipping, and insurance, and nobody wanted to pay that. Plus California's would have to admit that they imported an illegal gun. They knew that whether it was a factory defect that made illegal or not it could still cause them trouble.
So lots of folks just put on a Bullet Button anyway, and nothing ever happened. After all, who was to say that the button was not there when the gun was imported? There were no reporting requirements at the time, so any evidence would be Word of Mouth.
Anyhow you see the Catch-22 in all of this, and you also see where the state of California's logic fell apart.
The state figured it out too, which is when we started to hear all that confusing Bullet Button nonsense on TV. They know what a Bullet Button is but they're trying to muddy the waters because they don't want you to know what it's about. It's about ex post facto and the government rigging the laws to make you lose.
I expect the Cal DOJ would go around and start arresting those people, shortly after the next bad shooting, if DOJ knew who they were.
But if people don't register then they don't know who they are. To find out they have to go around and bust every gun dealer in the state and look at their records. There's a whole lot of them, but they are being run out of business every day.
Soon California will be able to tell a lot more about who has what weapons. They need the paper copies from all the local FFLs in the state.
It was not legal for them to take this information electronically in the past, but paper copies were kept on the local level and they are being retrieved.
So when you ask how can the government do this, you see all they have to do is change the laws, or create contradiction in laws and then clarify them later in their favor.
Out-of-state gun dealers and Gun manufacturers were not alerted, and did not know, or in a few cases perhaps were ignoring the fact, that at the time you could import guns with a Bullet Button only, and it had to be installed at the manufacturer. Not even an out-of-state gunsmith would in theory be legal.
This last bit was a legal clarification that came out after the fact.
Here l remember that famous line in the Constitution about how the government shall not make ex post facto laws... but only China or the US government is big enough to sue California. Neither one is helping.
ANYHOW, After the ex post facto rule came to light, local dealers and gunsmiths knew they were not allowed to install Bullet buttons in order to keep "non-compliant" ARs compliant as non assault weapons.
Lots of guys had put on a Bullet Button, as they didn't want to get busted for not having one. After all anybody could do it in 5 minutes and it only cost a few dollars. )
Anyhow, You could not legally ship the gun back to the manufacturer to have a Bullet Button installed, because non-Bullet Button guns could not be exported or imported. . . . except for manufacturer warranty repairs
For those, you had to pay an export fee and then to get it back in an import fee, plus often document fees for two gunshop transactions to send your gun back, depending on where you bought it and whether that place still interested.
It cost you about $75 round trip to the state of Cal, plus shipping, and insurance, and nobody wanted to pay all that to replace a $4 part that took 5 minutes. Those factors created a whole lot of paper felons in the state of California.)
So lots of folks just put on a Bullet Button anyway, and nothing ever happened. After all, who was to say that the button was not there when the gun was imported? There were no reporting requirements at the time, so any evidence would be Word of Mouth.
Anyhow you see the Catch-22 in all of this, and you also see where the state of California's logic fell apart.
The state figured it out too, which is when we started to hear all that confusing Bullet Button nonsense on TV. They know what a Bullet Button is but they're trying to muddy the waters because they don't want you to know what it's about. It's about ex post facto and the government rigging the laws to make you lose.
I expect the Cal DOJ would go around and start arresting those people, shortly after the next bad shooting, if DOJ knew who they were.
But if people don't register then they don't know who they are. To find out they have to go around and bust every gun dealer in the state and look at their records. There's a whole lot of them, but they are being run out of business every day.
Soon California will be able to tell a lot more about who has what weapons. They need the paper copies from all the local FFLs in the state.
It was not legal for them to take this information electronically in the past, when your purchases were made and background checked, but paperwork is kept at every store, and that is slowly being retrieved by Cal DOJ.
So when you ask how can the government do this, you see all they have to do is change the laws, or create contradiction in laws and then clarify them later in their favor.
At least that's the Hokey Pokey they're playing up in Sacramento.
FFLs are getting busted for importing guns that needed to be modified before they were California legal. The manufacturers had sent the special California Bullet Button separately.
A Fresno FFL got busted for importing guns that needed to be modified before they were California legal. The mfr sent the Bullet Button separately. This is commonly done for every part, which is non-standard and must be installed by the dealer to fit an individual's hand or adapt to the local Customs or a particular usage.
At the time you could import guns with a Bullet Button only, and it had to be installed at the manufacturer.
This last bit was a legal clarification that came out after the fact (l remember that famous line in the Constitution about ex post facto laws... but only China or the US government it's big enough to sue California. Neither one is helping.)
After the ex post facto clarification, local dealers and gunsmiths knew they were not allowed to install Bullet buttons in order to keep non-compliant ARs compliant, unless (in theory because I have read discussions both ways on this) gun was registered as an assault weapon and no one wanted to do that.
Lots of guys had put on a Bullet Button, as they didn't want to get busted just for not having one whether they're AR needed it or not.
You could not legally ship the gun back to the manufacturer to have a Bullet Button installed, because non-Bullet Button guns could not be exported or imported. (...except for manufacturer warranty repairs, for which you had to pay an import fee and an export fee to send your gun back. It cost you about $75 round trip to the state of Cal, plus shipping, and insurance, and nobody wanted to pay that. Plus California's would have to admit that they imported an illegal gun. They knew that whether it was a factory defect that made illegal or not it could still cause them trouble.
So lots of folks just put on a Bullet Button anyway, and nothing ever happened. After all, who was to say that the button was not there when the gun was imported? There were no reporting requirements at the time, so any evidence would be Word of Mouth.
Anyhow you see the Catch-22 in all of this, and you also see where the state of California's logic fell apart.
The state figured it out too, which is when we started to hear all that confusing Bullet Button nonsense on TV. They know what a Bullet Button is but they're trying to muddy the waters because they don't want you to know what it's about. It's about ex post facto and the government rigging the laws to make you lose.
I expect the Cal DOJ would go around and start arresting those people, shortly after the next bad shooting, if DOJ knew who they were.
But if people don't register then they don't know who they are. To find out they have to go around and bust every gun dealer in the state and look at their records. There's a whole lot of them, but they are being run out of business every day.
Soon California will be able to tell a lot more about who has what weapons. They need the paper copies from all the local FFLs in the state.
It was not legal for them to take this information electronically in the past, but paper copies were kept on the local level and they are being retrieved.
So when you ask how can the government do this, you see all they have to do is change the laws, or create contradiction in laws and then clarify them later in their favor.
Out-of-state gun dealers and Gun manufacturers were not alerted, and did not know, or in a few cases perhaps were ignoring the fact, that at the time you could import guns with a Bullet Button only, and it had to be installed at the manufacturer. Not even an out-of-state gunsmith would in theory be legal.
This last bit was a legal clarification that came out after the fact.
Here l remember that famous line in the Constitution about how the government shall not make ex post facto laws... but only China or the US government is big enough to sue California. Neither one is helping.
ANYHOW, After the ex post facto rule came to light, local dealers and gunsmiths knew they were not allowed to install Bullet buttons in order to keep "non-compliant" ARs compliant as non assault weapons.
Lots of guys had put on a Bullet Button, as they didn't want to get busted for not having one. After all anybody could do it in 5 minutes and it only cost a few dollars. )
Anyhow, You could not legally ship the gun back to the manufacturer to have a Bullet Button installed, because non-Bullet Button guns could not be exported or imported. . . . except for manufacturer warranty repairs
For those, you had to pay an export fee and then to get it back in an import fee, plus often document fees for two gunshop transactions to send your gun back, depending on where you bought it and whether that place still interested.
It cost you about $75 round trip to the state of Cal, plus shipping, and insurance, and nobody wanted to pay all that to replace a $4 part that took 5 minutes. Those factors created a whole lot of paper felons in the state of California.)
So lots of folks just put on a Bullet Button anyway, and nothing ever happened. After all, who was to say that the button was not there when the gun was imported? There were no reporting requirements at the time, so any evidence would be Word of Mouth.
Anyhow you see the Catch-22 in all of this, and you also see where the state of California's logic fell apart.
The state figured it out too, which is when we started to hear all that confusing Bullet Button nonsense on TV. They know what a Bullet Button is but they're trying to muddy the waters because they don't want you to know what it's about. It's about ex post facto and the government rigging the laws to make you lose.
I expect the Cal DOJ would go around and start arresting those people, shortly after the next bad shooting, if DOJ knew who they were.
But if people don't register then they don't know who they are. To find out they have to go around and bust every gun dealer in the state and look at their records. There's a whole lot of them, but they are being run out of business every day.
Soon California will be able to tell a lot more about who has what weapons. They need the paper copies from all the local FFLs in the state.
It was not legal for them to take this information electronically in the past, when your purchases were made and background checked, but paperwork is kept at every store, and that is slowly being retrieved by Cal DOJ.
So when you ask how can the government do this, you see all they have to do is change the laws, or create contradiction in laws and then clarify them later in their favor.
At least that's the Hokey Pokey they're playing up in Sacramento.
