The Judicial Assembly Line

Sorry for being missing in action for the past few weeks. My wife and I have been preparing for arraignment for the traffic ticket that we received. Today was arraignment day and we woke up bright and early (can someone say 4am?) to drive out to Barstow (from Los Angeles).

We get to Barstow in plenty of time and parked in the parking lot of the Superior Court of Barstow on West Mountain View. There were already a few cars parked and I see some people waiting in line as the court was not yet open. My wife and I stay in the car as it was cold outside (around 50 degrees). As we waited we watched the parking lot fill up. I can't say that all these people were there for traffic court, but even if it was only half going to traffic court, it shows that the city/state has been busy enforcing traffic laws!

After about 30 minutes of waiting, the court doors open up and we line up to enter. We go through the metal detectors and were instructed to sign in. After signing in, we are assigned a courtroom and told to wait. We waited for another 30 minutes when we are called into the courtroom by the bailiff.

The bailiff proceeds to tell us (my paraphrasing):

You will all be called up to appear before the judge. During this time, the judge will state the charge against you and you will be required to enter a plea of either guilty or not guilty. The judge will NOT hear any stories/explanations. If you have anything to say as your defense, save it for trial by pleading not guilty. Traffic school is available to you, but not if you were charged with driving over 100MPH or if you have a commercial drivers license. The judge moves quickly so when you hear your name, please stand up and line up in this area.

If your penalty is a fine, you will be required to make payment. If you need a payment plan, that is available for an additional fee. After you have entered your plea and either get your penalty or agree to your assigned trial date, please step outside the courtroom and wait for your paperwork.

At this point, we were screwed. Our plan was to plead "no contest" and ask the judge for leniency as this was my wife's first citation (ever) in 10+ years of driving. We huddled up and started to discuss what we wanted to do. As we discussed it, people were being called and lined up to appear before the judge. Would it surprise you (just based on what the bailiff had told everyone) that the judge would be an absolute hard ass?

Well, neither did we, as we proceeded to hear the judge deliver the first set of penalties - a $1000 fine for one defendant going over 100MPH, a $861 fine for another person going over 100MPH, $225 fine for going 26MPH above the speed limit. You get the picture. Since the judge was not giving anyone a break, we decided to plead not guilty and take our chances at trial...a slim chance is better than no chance at all. However, we did attempt one thing - when called up, my wife asked if traffic school would be an option. Any guesses as to the judge's answer? Yup, she replied "NO".

Anyways, we now have a trial date for early April and will be making the early morning trip back to Barstow. We'll definitely have a lawyer with us for trial, so if anyone has any recommendations (or any words of advice), please let us know.

It took the judge about 45 minutes to clear the courtroom (with about 50 people appearing). I figure that the average fine was about $300-$350. In less than an hour, the city/state just raked in about $15,000. A good way to increase revenue if you ask me. Now if only the authorities would also enforce the ban on talking on your cell phone while driving! I see a minimum of 10 of these infractions a day...how much revenue would that bring into the city/state coffers?

With all this said, here's my public service announcement for the day:

Watch your speed folks. The city/county/state is broke and they want your money! Saving those few minutes on your drive isn't worth it...and can be dangerous as well.

PS - Too bad these weren't our judges at traffic court!

Open Carry in California is Legal

As a reader pointed out to me, I was mistaken in my previous post about CA not allowing for open carry. Per CaliforniaOpenCarry.org's FAQ:

Is Open Carry Legal in California?

Yes. However, there are many restrictions, but generally as long as your firearm is not concealed, and not loaded, and you are not in a prohibited area ("school zone", post office, government building), then it is legal.

I'll have to do more research regarding the laws in Los Angeles as that's where I reside. However, I wanted to post this correction and thank the reader for pointing this out to me.

The NRA's Newest Member...Me

If you want to own a firearm and you live outside of California, consider yourself lucky. This state puts a lot of small barriers that you have to hurdle in order to exercise your 2nd Amendment right. Mind you, they're not big barriers; but put enough small ones in the way and they become a major barrier. If you weren't truly serious about owning a firearm, you would say "Forget it" and I'm sure that's what the state would like.

In order to own a handgun, I had to do the following:

• Take a Handgun Safety Certification Test
  (Normally, I would say this is a good thing, but the fucking test is so easy that you may as well not have the test at all.)
• Pay $25 for the Handgun Safety Certification Card when you pass the test
  (Basically a tax for the right to own a handgun in CA.)
• Purchase your gun and pay L.A.'s 8.25% sales tax
  (Starting April 1, 2009, the sales tax is going up a full 1% because the state government can't fucking do their job. They would rather increase the sales tax on everyone rather than let their special interests, i.e., the various labor unions, lose any of their fucking jobs.)
• Wait 10-days
  (Because you need a cooling off period as you may be buying the gun to commit a crime. And if you already own a handgun and had gone through the waiting period, you would have to go through another 10-day waiting period for every subsequent handgun purchase.)
• When you pick up the gun, you need a CA-certified gun lock before you can leave the store.
  (If you don't have a certified lock, be prepared to purchase one. Prices range from $5-$10.)
• If you want a permit to carry a concealed weapon, good luck with that!
  (In the county of Los Angeles, it's nearly impossible to get one.)

All I can say is, "What the fuck!?!?!" Can the state put any more hurdles to law abiding citizens who want to exercise their right to own a firearm? Enough is enough. I decided to join the NRA to defend our right to own a firearm. Luckily for me, I spotted this great NRA Bonus Offer and was able to get a free one year membership! That's right, FREE!

I joined today and am happy I did. I just wanted to share the offer with others out there who value their rights as guaranteed by the Bill of Rights. If we let the government take away one of those rights, who is to say they won't take away the rest?

CCI Mini-Mag HP

According to the Walther Forums members, the ammunition of choice for the Walther P22 is the CCI Mini-Mag HP. We happened to pass by a Walmart and decided to drop in since some Walmarts do carry ammunition. I guess I got lucky because this store did have the CCI Mini-Mags on hand.



I bought the last 4 boxes on the shelf and now have a total of 400 rounds. This should last me a little while at the range! Each box was $6.47. The Mini-Mags are high-velocity, copper-plated hollow point rounds. They are 36 grain in weight and rated for 1260 feet per second (FPS).

Here's a short video I found on YouTube discussing ammunition for the Walther P22:


The clock is ticking down until I am officially allowed by the state of CA to pick-up my P22. I can't wait to try these with my pistol!


Update 4/11/09: Please view this post for a review of the CCI Mini-Mag and CCI Stinger with my Walther P22..

Legislating Wealth, Taking Away Freedom

I found this quote online while reading about the economy. I thought it is very appropriate to what is going on with the budget mess in California and what may be happening too at the Federal/National level with the President's proposed budget.

"You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the rich out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend is about the end of any nation. You cannot multiply the wealth by dividing it." - Dr. Adrian Rogers

Put the Monkeys in the Zoo

The Monkeys, err Legislators, in Sacramento, California have gone crazy. It's time to put the Monkeys away in the zoo by recalling them and voting them out of office.

If you can believe it, they're going to balance the budget by raising taxes and fees. Are you fucking kidding me? We're in a fucking recession - people have lost their jobs, salaries have been frozen or cut, raises have been canceled - and the fucking Monkeys want to add to our burden because "we are all expected to sacrifice." Here are the main points of their plan as we know it today:

Temporary Tax Hikes

• Nearly doubling vehicle license fee
• Raising sales taxes 1 cent
• Raising gasoline taxes 12 cents a gallon
• Surcharge of 2.5% to 5% on personal income taxes

Program Cuts

• $8 billion from public schools, community colleges (although some of these cuts may be offset by Federal aid from the Stimulus package)
• $890 million from state colleges, universities
• $459 million from public transit
  

To this I say, “FUCK OFF!” The state doesn't deserve an extra penny from us and here's why:

• During the good times, the state decided to spend the surplus RATHER than save it for a rainy day. They kept spending because 1) the Legislators wanted to pay back the special interests whose support got them elected and 2) they weren't smart enough to realize the surplus would stop one day (the good times were bound to end).

• The state's budget has doubled in the last 10 years. And what do we have to show for the extra spending? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING of any consequence. The Educational system is still in the toilet, public transportation still sucks, roads are falling apart, prisons are overcrowded, and we still don't get decent service from any government office (State or Local).

• It's not only the state that has been impacted; we have been impacted by the economy as well. We've had to cut our expenses and live on less, so should the state. We can't just raise extra money by increasing taxes (like the state). If you own a business, you certainly can’t raise your prices as your customers will go elsewhere for their goods & services. If you’re an individual, you can’t get another job because businesses are cutting back and aren't fucking hiring; and you certainly can’t borrow from the banks because they aren't lending (and in some cases, banks are imploding).

• Do we honestly believe the tax hikes will be temporary? How much would you like to wager that program cuts will be funded back to their previous levels way before you hear any talk of the tax hikes & fee increases going away. If anything, you’ll hear that the tax hike and fee increases will be made permanent.

• The Legislators are taking the easy way out. Do your fucking job!!! Prioritize the items that need to be funded; then start cutting (i.e., stop funding) the items that either don't make the list or are on the bottom of the list until the budget is balanced.
  

Join me in calling and emailing the California State Legislators to stop this madness. It’s time to take back our state and put people in charge who are responsible to the people….not the FUCKING special interests!

PS - One more point to make: Raising taxes and fees to the point of equaling a rent/mortgage/car payment only makes us spend less and want to save more. In essence, you reduce consumer spending even more which then causes less tax revenue. So what happens when the state sees a further reduction in revenue???? Another fucking tax and fee increase. This vicious cycle won't end until the state reduces their spending or the state goes bankrupt!

Republik of Kalifornia's Handgun Safety Certificate

To those of you interested in purchasing a handgun in the Republik of Kalifornia, you are required by the Republik to obtain a Handgun Safety Certificate. You get the certificate by taking and passing a test at any licensed firearms dealer.

I took this test this weekend in preparation of owning my first handgun. With the Legislative and Executive branches of the US Gov't in firm Liberal hands, I thought it would be a good idea to secure my firearm before the Feds take that right away. :-) Alright, alright...I don't really think the Dems would be dumb enough to try that (and galvanize the Conservatives on the right), but an opportune time nonetheless as my wife finally agreed to let me buy a handgun! Woohoo! :-)

The test consists of 30 questions - True/False and Multiple Choice - and costs $25. I missed 2 questions on the test, but still passed. In fact, the Republik lets you miss up to 7 questions - 23 correct answers gets you a Certificate! Honestly, you would have to try really hard (or have NO common sense whatsoever) to fail the test. The only questions that would trip anyone up are those asking about the state's gun laws, such as how long a convicted felon is barred from owning a handgun.

I hope the Republik puts my $25 to good use. This test is more of an inconvenience and 'tax' than anything else. If you want to buy a handgun, make sure you're ready to pay $25 on top of the cost of the handgun you want to purchase. Oh...and if the test happens to stop a law-abiding resident from buying a handgun, I'm sure the Republik isn't crying over that.

PS - To get more information on the test (including a study guide), visit the California Office of the Attorney General's page on the Handgun Safety Certificate Program.