Censoring Gun Owners

In order to restrict the use of citizens’ Second Amendment rights, California targeted the First Amendment.

Many have noted that the Second Amendment literally protects all of our other rights; after all, if criminals or tyrants are able to take your life or liberty with little to no resistance—especially armed resistance—your right to free speech, your right to due process under the law and more are unlikely to be respected. Unless you, or our heroes in blue charged with protecting the innocent, are able to protect our most basic rights, all of our rights are in danger.

But those opposed to our right to keep and bear arms ignore the fact that the Second Amendment acts as a bulwark for all of our freedoms, protecting our other rights from legislatures, in courts and in public opinion.

California’s legislature and governor just unwittingly showed us that, indeed, the Second Amendment is a cornerstone of American liberty. Last June, a majority of California’s legislators passed, and Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed, AB 2571, a bill titled “Firearms: advertising to minors.” This legislation, now a law, is a direct assault on the First and Second Amendment rights of residents of California. But, thanks in large part to this civil-liberties association—its members, legal team and resources—the state soon saw that they were going to lose constitutional challenges in the courts; so, in late September, they amended the law with a public-safety trailer bill filed as AB 160. Budget trailer bills are not supposed to be used for policy, but authoritarian legislatures like the one in California often use them this way to avoid open debate and discussion.

What is still on the books in California, however, remains an egregious attack on our First and Second Amendment rights. Here is what happened. It is worth going through the details, as this fight isn’t over and is likely to, in one form or another, come up again.

More From America’s 1st Freedom: