The Roster

“There is a certain amount of excitement knowing that someone…. or a group of “someones”… people you will likely never meet…. possessed with far lesser knowledge of of a subject than you, decide what is best for you and demand through force, that you accept their benevolence.” – Anonymous

I heard this quote in college and I tucked it away for future use. Well…. the future is upon us!

I want you to imagine that you are a chef. (Perhaps you are a chef… or merely interested in cooking as a hobby… both are ok.)

You are on a trip to Arizona and to pass some time you wander into a high end cooking store at the local high end strip mall. There you see a beautiful damascus carving knife. It is not cheap, but you are instantly drawn to it. The sales person lets you handle it and you decide you need this knife!

(Sure… you’ve got one at home in the kitchen drawer that is similar… but it is not thisbeauty!)

(If you came here from the email continue reading here!)Well…. you’re heading back by plane tomorrow and you are only taking carry on luggage, so buying the knife now is not going to work. No worries… this is a chain store, and there is a sister store just a few blocks from your house. You’ll get one just as soon as you get home.

Back home you walk into the cooking store and are shocked to find out that that knife is not available in California!

You are told that that knife is not on the approved roster of “Safe Knives” for sale in California. You see… a manufacturer must submit the knife to the Dept. of Justice. They must determine that the knife is not going to cut you or someone else unintentionally, and there must be approved features embedded in the knife. For a manufacturer to submit the knife to the Dept. of Justice they have to pay a pretty penny.

What is worse…. The Justice Dept. has just announced that all new knives on the roster must have imbedded serration micro-marking technology. (So if someone gets cut they can trace the knife back to the owner). The problem is no reliable Micro-marking technology exists…. so knife manufacturers have simply said screw it…. we won’t sell our knives in California.

This is our gun roster. While a citizen can purchase a specific handgun in Arizona, Nevada, and Oregon… that same handgun… not on the roster in California is deemed by California authorities as “Unsafe”.

(I’m sure the store owners and purchasers in the bordering states are quivering at the possibility that the products they own or sell are “unsafe” by California standards.)

Sunday I went to Bass Pro for a lecture. I got there a little early and looked at the gun counter. The last time I visited there were literally hundreds of different varieties available for purchase.

Now…. Three.

Not that these guns will be around that long.

By 2015 all of the guns that are currently on the roster will have to be re-tested… and guess what… They will all fail.

Why?

One of the requirements… That they all be fitted with micro-stamping technology is not reliable, nor commercially feasible at this point.

Of interesting note… there is an exemption to being forced to buy a handgun on the roster… if you have a badge… meaning you’re in law enforcement… you are authorized to purchase and carry…. wait for it… an “UNSAFE GUN”!

This might create an interesting litigation point.

Here is the bigger problem for our law enforcement brothers and sisters…

Gun companies love to give big contracts to agencies. Not because they make a whole lot of money on the individual guns… they don’t. Because they are huge marketing opportunities.

See.. when “Metro-police” announce a contract with Evil Gun Manufacturer there are a whole bunch of civilians that decide they want to buy that same gun from Evil Gun Manufacturer. These civilians are more than willing to pay full retail… and that full retail price and the sales driven by those civilians, more than make up for the money lost with the actual contract.

If Average Joe can’t buy the gun that “Metro-police” carry, why in the world would Evil Gun Manufacturer bother with the contract in the first place?

They won’t.

Or… if they do… the price of the contract will go up dramatically.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation, as well as Cal-Guns both have law suits challenging the Constitutional validity of the roster. In the end they will probably win… but in the mean time we wait… wait, wait, and wait… while our betters up in Sacramento smile knowing they know what is best for us.