Why I Don't Post About CA Gun Law Arrests

Assault Weapon and Illegal “Ghost Gun” Manufacturing Discovered During Investigation of Camarillo Resident.

​I have a policy of avoiding criticizing California gun laws when some scumbag gets arrests for a gun-related crime, usually on charges that are unique to this once-great state. Felons, drug dealers, and other assorted criminals who have no business being armed have nothing coming to them. It’s not the hill I want to die on. However, I do want to discuss this case.
 
In this case, a dude who was high on something got pulled over and his vehicle searched. A gun was found and he was charged with CCW. The trail of bread crumbs was followed and he was probably getting high with a parolee in a hotel room. More guns and ammo were found. SED, the Special Enforcement Detail (plainclothes deputies), gets a warrant for the guys house and find out he’s been making his own firearms.
 
So scumbag makes guns in his garage. Not a big deal to make your own guns, but this guy is a felon and all indications are that he’s not making these things simply because he is a hobbyist with fervent belief in the Second Amendment. By all appearances (and I don’t have any inside knowledge of the case) he’s selling the guns he makes to bad guys, which makes him a bad guy. Law-abiding gun owners don’t do drugs, make guns, then sell them to parolees.
 
Despite the retardation of California, the world is a better, and safer place with this guy staying in mid-town Ventura’s worst reviewed high-rise temporary living establishment. Trust me, the room service sucks. The only thing on the menu for room service is Neutraloaf.
 
Once the Bruen case law gets established, this guy, if he can afford a decent lawyer, will get the CCW, loaded firearm, “assault weapon,” and magazine charges tossed out. I don’t see how he can get away from the under the influence while armed charge. The manufacturer charge may go as well depending on court rulings but I’m not so sure. He’s definitely done for selling guns illegally and should be nailed to the wall for that.
 
First off, making your own firearms is perfectly moral and still mostly legal. Second, none of the stuff confiscated should be illegal or particularly regulated; it was the suspect’s actions that are evil, not the items. In other states, he still would have been done once it was discovered he was DUI drugs and carrying a gun. The supply guns to felons part also spells doom across the country. The other stuff? It shouldn’t be illegal, but not for his sake. These gun laws didn’t stop this guy and they disproportionately harm normal citizens.
 
Third, “ghost gun” and “assault weapon” are nonsensical scare words that should be banned from law enforcement vernacular. Polymer 80 is/was the only way anyone in California is going to get a Glock type gun in this state because of the stupid handgun roster. Want a Glock 43? Only way to get one is buy an overpriced one from a cop who bought it and didn’t like it or to roll your own 80%. Until the rules tightened, these were really popular in California with legitimate gun owners.
 
80% guns also probably reduced a lot of gun thefts as criminals before would have had to steal guns or obtain them through straw purchases. Serial numbers and registration does fuck all to stop crime. All serial numbers do is make it easier to track straw purchases or thefts after a criminal’s gun is recovered. Oh, and where serial numbers are required you can be arrested for having a gun without one or having obliterated it.
 
“Ghost gun” and “un-serialized” are ways of scaring stupid people. It’s anti-gun propaganda that I’m sure the PIOs picked up from CA DOJ somewhere and it all just trickled down to detectives who aren’t that in to guns. It’s frustrating, but at least Dustin’s press release isn’t any more sensational than it has to be.
 
When was the last time you saw Ventura County deputies arrest a normal, otherwise law-abiding citizen because he did something in California that is legal in like 45 states? I’m sure something is out there but I can’t think of it. The only thing that does come to mind is an arrest for “high capacity” magazines that got 849’d (basically un-arrested) due to Freedom Week. Turns out, no one in briefing bothered to discuss Freedom Week and that all 10+ magazines had been semi-legalized with the stay.
 
I’m not keen on having units named the “Gun Violence Reduction Team” (basically an adjunct of the Gang Unit but focuses on felons with guns so justify the grant money they’re taking to fund it) but at least in this small corner of the People’s Republic, the only people who are getting hammered are the real bad guys.
 
However, we must continue to discuss this kind of stuff open and freely to make sure it’s only drug dealers, felons, and gang members who are getting busted. There has to be a delineation in the mind of police between law abiding citizens defending themselves or engaged in a perfectly normal hobby and real criminals. As long as deputies are using the California-only gun felonies as a means to an end, that’s fine, but all of us in the law enforcement family with Second Amendment community crossover have to be the light on a hill for our badged brethren who might not know better.
 
Now for the Camarillians who might be scared, this was a nothing burger. You were never in any heightened danger because of this guy or his “ghost gun” factory. Good bust? Yes. Second Amendment violation? Not really. Is California retarded? You bet.
 
You gotta remember (and I do too) that most cops are not likely to be gun people anymore than a car salesman is likely to be a gearhead. Trust me, it took me a lot of time to come around to the position that I have. A cop with little experience with the gun community and no exposure to the kind of “shall not be infringed” thinking my readers have isn’t going to look at things the same way.
 
My one ask of incoming sheriff Jim Fryhoff, who is rumored to be a “gun guy,” is to rein in the use of “assault weapon” and “ghost gun.” Quit the hype and hysterical titles. To paraphrase Charles Dickens, if I could work my will, any cop who went about with “ghost gun” and “assault weapon” on his lips would be boiled in his own Hoppes and his cleaning rod buried in his butt.
 
To summarize, this is why I don’t bother commenting on this stuff. A real bad guy is the wrong context to argue over semantics and legalities that most are too dense to understand. Bad guy = no one cares. It’s not worth the energy. Hell, I’m not even sure why I typed this.