Thursday, February 28, 2013

Back Home and Back in the Fight...

Home from a few days in the Big Easy with my Sweetie...tomorrow at the Colorado Legislature and the Governor's office.

We got a legal opinion late tonight on the proposed magazine capacity law that I'll take to the Senators and the Governor, and it is a BITCH! Essentially, despite assurances to the contrary, the grandfather provision provides much less protection than the bill's authors claim. In short, the bill claims that owners of grandfathered magazines need only assert that the magazines were obtained prior to the (proposed) Ban should they be found in possession of said magazines.

However, according to the legal opinion we now have in hand, the idea that all one need to do is "assert" ownership if the magazines prior to the date of the Ban is pure BS...rather, the wording of the law is something less than an "affirmative defense." Le me explain how that works...

...let's say that you are a prairie dog hunter panning on the dog hunt of a lifetime. So you and a friend fly into Denver International with a couple of high-zoot ARs and a dozen standard P-Mags. You collect your guns, rent a car and head  out of the airpower...before you can get to I-25, you're rear-ended by your basic local stoned hippie. The police come, and in the course of their investigation one of the officer notices a gun bag full of 30-round magazines.

Suddenly, you and your friend are arrested...your magazines and guns are seized...your rental car is seized...you and your friend are taken to jail, booked and thrown behind bars until a date can be set for the judge...the whole time you and your friend are saying, heck, you assert that you owned these magazines BEFORE the Ban went into effect...the police say that's just fine, the judge will sort it out.

You finally find a criminal attorney, who arranges for you to put up your house as collateral for bail to get you and your friend out of jail...instead of shooting prairie dogs, you're huddled in a Denver hotel waiting to go before a judge. In a couple of days you go before the judge and your criminal attorney, to whom you have paid a $10,000 retainer, says that you and your owned these illegal magazines prior to the Colorado Ban. The judge looks at the prosecutor, who shrugs. The gavel comes down and the judge says, "Dismissed."

You breathe a sign of relief...yes, you'r e out $10K to the criminal attorney and your long-planned hunting trip is in shambles, but at least you and your friend are not in the slam. Denver says you're lucky in tat the rental car has not yet been auctioned off, so you get it back after only a few hundred dollars. When you ask about your 2 $2000+ ARs and the dozen P-Mags, you're met with incredulity...the guns and accessories, the police tell you, were quite correctly "seized for cause," that is, you did indeed break the law by possessing "illegal" standard capacity magazines...the fact that the judge kicked you out was an "affirmation defense," a downstream action after the perfectly legitimate address. In short, you don't get the guns, magazines and accessories back...ever.

So instead of the prairie dog hunting trip of a lifetime, you're out $10,000 (or more) for a criminal attorney, bail money — a portion of which will be returned to you — your expenses for staying in the Denver area while your case is being considered, the loss of ALL your guns, magazines and gear, permanently, and the sheer heartache, fear and sleepless nights to yo, your friend and your family.

THIS is what we're fighting!

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oooh. Michael, you can be such a bummer at times.

Where is probable cause? Why not arrest everyone for anything, seize all their stuff, find them not guilty and let the state benefit from their assets, let alone lose their jobs/reputation/etc? How could this possibly be just? How could Americans end up in this position?

Anonymous said...

In short, NO COLORADO for me.

Publicola said...

Mr. Bane,
That ain't the worst of it. I'm sure your legal guys have covered the transfers part. Mags are grandfathered, but their transfer, not just sale, are prohibited. So handing you a mag that I legally own means I committed an illegal transfer & you'd be in illegal possession. It's similar for the universal background check law - unless I background check you & vice versa then we couldn't shoot each others rifles in a backyard range or on public land.

& if you think all those are bad, wait til you get ahold of SB 196 the "assault weapons" liability bill. The "legislative declaration" sections are downright insulting, and were written with the help of the brady center.

Taken altogether, these bills ain't just well intentioned but extremely idiotic crime control measures - their main focus seems to be making it harder to engage in & pass on our culture. They want our way of living suppressed & eventually wiped out. I can see no other purpose in what they're doing, and our strategy has to reflect that or they stand a good chance of accomplishing some of their goals.

Anyway, good luck tomorrow, & thanks for putting up a fight for us all.

Overload in Colorado said...

Don't forget that 30 round magazines are already banned in Denver. I think there might be a transport provision, but I'm not sure.

Flash Powder Hal said...

If this crap passes, CO will join CA, IL, NJ and NY to places I will NEVER visit or spend money with again - EVER!

Anonymous said...

I will never go to Colorado due to the not knowing the gotchas in whatever they pass. Yes, I know it's our responsibility to know and understand the gun laws of a state we are visiting, however when that task becomes so burdensome that it removes the joy of a visit it's just not worth it. I'll spend all of my dollars in free states. Time to move the secret hiden bunker to another state Michael. Same advice you give to NY and NJ res.

Alien said...

Simply avoiding Colorado isn't an option for those of us in Free America - these laws will place CO in the same status as NY, NJ and IL.

Consider: You plan your prairie dog hunt for Wyoming/Montana/Idaho because Colorado is a full-commie state. You don't drive, because for the reasons Michael stated above, you want to avoid the Colorado Gestapo agents. You check your bags containing firearms and magazines with the airline, everything is fine. Your plane has a mechanical problem and lands in Denver. Sorry, they say, no plane tonight, we'll pay for your hotel room and get a fresh plane the first thing in the morning.

The moment the airline hands your checked bags back to you the exact situation Michael described above exists - just like it does in NY, NJ, IL and the other commie states.

This battle isn't just for Coloradoans - it's for all of us.

Anonymous said...

This is a gawdawful nightmare brewing. Come to West Virginia! We're a gun packing friendly state and apt to be so for the foreseeable future.

Peter B said...

Nominally off topic, but: Michael, this is your industry; is there anything to this? Employees: Obama donor in process of buying up and ‘destroying’ America’s top pro-gun media outlets

Anonymous said...

HOLY SMOLEY ! Read the story in Daily Caller that Peter B posted. WTF???

MB is this true that the guy that bought Outdoor and Sportsman Channel is an Obama drone? That Intermedia is also owned by him and that they are effing with the gun magazine business? This is a full out attack on our 1st Amendment rights now !

Anonymous said...

Michael

Sorry to change the subject but I just read this and it really scares me. Can you comment?

Thank you

http://dailycaller.com/2013/02/28/obama-donor-in-process-of-buying-up-and-destroying-americas-top-pro-gun-media-outlets/

Bubblehead Les. said...

I've had a standing offer to to head out to Colorado to my Brother-in-Laws place and do some Hunting and Fishing and Relaxing. If those Laws come into effect, that'll be something on my Bucket List that WON'T be checked off.

Unless he moves to Wyoming.

Anonymous said...

Come to TN.We've got all kinds of places for you to build a NEW HIDDEN BUNKER, in the hills and hollers. THANKS! You STAY SAFE .

Rob Drummond said...

Michael,
I had to laugh when I was watching Shooting Gallery the other night when you stated the the "Oceans will stop rising and the earth will heal" I nearly pissed myself!

That statement the same that the Dictator in Chief said illustrated just the kind of lunicy we are dealing with. Guns are only the first of the many transformational changes Himself wants to make of this great country.

Keep fighting the good fight!
Rob Drummond
Hillsboro, NH

"gunner" said...

this is beyond sad. i once visited denver for a sci-fi convention and found the natives very friendly, she even cooked me breakfast. never again, not while these laws stand, even if i've left my guns at home.

The Freeholder said...

Sounds like CO has decided that they want their hunting industry to shut down. Score one each for the anti-gunners and the anti-hunters.

Ken said...

Do you ever look around Colorado and wonder if, in twelve years, kids wearing hunting camo will sit around drinking beer out of 6oz cans (the largest size available now that Bloomberg is President), talking about how the man has wronged them, while hippies drive by in their Volvos, smoking joints the size of their forearms, and flip them off, yelling, "Get a job, ya dirty deer killers!" That seems to be the plan now that The Man has dreadlocks there... I'm sure there's a song in it, somewhere.

mikeJ said...

I still have some hope, since I see kids at CSU in the College of Business and College of Engineering with camo caps and jackets, I don't think all is lots. The College of Liberal Arts is still just your wanna-be hippies. The question is about who will make the money to guide the politics going forward.
I do wish that the NSSF "First Shots" program was out there more. I would love to get people there every month. I've taken a couple Indian students to the range and it was great to see their smiles!

Frank W. James said...

Michael; As one who used to live and work in Colorado I view all this information with great sadness and trepidation.

Quite simply, Colorado has removed itself from the list of areas that a reasonable person would want to visit for ANY reason and you can forget Hunting.

These laws are worse than California or New York and thus the state should be treated as such.

Who goes Elk Hunting in New York City?....

All The Best,
Frank W. James

nj larry said...

MB you sure have your work cut out for you in Colorado. This story just hit Drudge. Turns out the CO laws will ban most shotguns.

http://denver.cbslocal.com/2013/03/01/popular-standard-shotgun-could-be-banned-under-proposed-bill/

And since I have my tin foil hat on, do you think there is reason Biden keeps talking about double barrel shotguns? Is this the end game?

cheap baseball jerseys said...

Why not arrest everyone to do anything, seize all their things, find their innocence, let countries benefit from the asset, not to mention unemployment/reputation/etc? This thing how is it possible to just? How do americans may end up in this position?