STOP THE SAN FRANCISCO GUN BAN!
On November 8, San Francisco voters will decide if the rights that all Americans value— the right to privacy, the right to be safe in our homes and neighborhoods, the right to have personal property protected from confiscation, and the Right to Keep and Bear Arms—will be secured, or surrendered. Securing those civil liberties is simple:
Vote NO on Proposition H and Protect Your Right to Protect Yourself !
Proposition H seeks to prohibit law-abiding San Francisco residents from purchasing firearms—rifles, shotguns and handguns— for any lawful reason, whether it be for self-defense, hunting or recreational shooting. If Proposition H passes, current law-abiding gun owners would have to surrender their registered handguns to the police.
Handguns not turned in voluntarily will become contraband, to be found and collected by the police, law enforcement officers who will be diverted from their jobs of apprehending violent criminals.
San Francisco residents do have a choice. They can vote NO on November 8 and defeat Proposition H. They can stand up for their civil liberties and tell the politicians that the answer to crime is not to shred constitutionally guaranteed civil rights, but to apprehend, prosecute and punish criminals.
Special Forum Templates.
What is San Francisco’s Proposition H?
Proposition H is one of the most radical gun control ordinances to be proposed in any U.S. city – one that sacrifices the safety of individual citizens for the posturing of cynical politicians. It is an ill-conceived attempt at social engineering by some members of San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors that will punish those who obey the law and reward those who violate it. Prop. H would:
Totally ban handguns: Prop. H requires that handguns owned by law-abiding San Francisco residents be disposed of or turned into the police. This is more extreme than bans in cities such as Washington, D.C., and Chicago, that only applied to ownership of handguns that had not been previously registered.
Ban the sale, manufacture and distribution of all firearms: Current owners of rifles and shotguns would not be allowed to transfer their firearms to anyone, including family members. Also, no firearms manufacturer, wholesaler or distributor could operate in San Francisco.
In addition to assaulting the individual citizen’s right to keep and bear arms, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors’ Prop. H is fatally flawed in other ways:
No compensation provided for law-abiding gun owners: Prop. H sets no reimbursement for private property surrendered to the police.
No penalties set for violating ban: Voters are being asked to approve a proposal with undefined consequences. Prop. H leaves the issue of penalties open, allowing the Board of Supervisors to set any punishment allowed by California law.
Unlimited power given to the Board of Supervisors: Prop. H’s Section 8 states: “By a two-thirds vote and upon making findings, the Board of Supervisors may amend this ordinance in the furtherance of reducing handgun violence.” Eight Supervisors can do anything they want to expand the scope of the proposition if it passes.
Banning firearms is not a progressive cause: Organizations including the Coalition for San Francisco Neighborhoods, the Libertarian Party of San Francisco and the San Francisco Pink Pistols oppose Prop. H, because it denies citizens the means to defend themselves against crime, including hate crime.
Taxpayers to pay for costly legal battle: Prop. H sponsors have not done their homework. A long-standing California preemption statute prohibits cities from passing a patchwork of conflicting gun laws. If Prop. H does pass, taxpayers will have to pay for a costly lawsuit that San Francisco may very well lose, as it has done in the past.
Discriminates against San Francisco residents: Visitors to the city may possess handguns as long as they obey other applicable laws.
Prop H will bring exactly the opposite results that its proponents claim. In other U.S. cities that have banned guns, crime did not go down—it increased. In the years following the D.C. ban, where crime had been trending down, crime rose sharply. In the ensuing years, Washington, D.C., became the murder capital of the nation.
Making San Francisco a magnet for violent crime: The passage of Prop. H may make criminals laugh, but it won’t make them turn in their guns. Most criminals get their guns illegally, and felons who merely possess firearms are already committing a serious federal crime.
Diverting already stretched police resources: “Violent criminals who prey on San Francisco’s residents and visitors have a better chance of getting away with their crime than predators in any other large American city.†(San Francisco Chronicle, May 19, 2002). Can San Francisco really afford to divert law enforcement time and money from apprehending and arresting violent criminals to trying to enforce Prop. H?
Roadblocks, random searches of houses or neighborhoods: How exactly does the Board of Supervisors intend police to enforce Prop. H without violating San Franciscans’ Fourth Amendment rights? How can Prop. H be enforced without violating someone’s privacy and civil liberties?
Prop. H will leave law-abiding men and women defenseless: Prohibiting the right of individual San Franciscans to choose their means of defense against robbers, rapists, gang bangers, stalkers or home invaders denies a constitutionally protected civil liberty.
San Francisco already has some of the most stringent firearms laws in the nation. It’s time to start getting tough with criminals who violate those laws and time to respect the civil liberties – including the right to self-defense – of law-abiding residents.
You are totally correct. What is a person to do if your life is in danger at this very
moment? Call 911 and wait? Any police officer can tell you that you are responsible for
your own safety and they can tell you that they always get to the scene of the crime to
clean up the mess after the crime have been committed. Gun control laws is very strict
already in SF. Only the rich, politician and celebrity might be able to get a concealed
weapon permit. Here in Oregon, a law-abiding citizen with no criminal record can get a
concealed weapon permit without questions. San Francisco politicians does not trust their
own citizens. If this law pass, only the law-abiding will be defenseless and the criminal
will be armed.
I disagree that banning guns is not a “progressive” cause. Quite the contrary. The
leaders of “whole progressive humanity” such as Lenin and Stalin believed that gun
control is not only useful, but necessary. One of the orders passed after Great
October Socialist Revolution was one that banned posession of firearms and those found
in posession were to be executed.
So, “comrades” in San Francisco are acting consistently with the beliefs of their
Socialist Founding Fathers.
Please get out and vote against this stupid handgun ban!
That is the dumbest law i ever heard of. Francisco is just a bunch of queers anyway.
They have just set themselves up for the kill.
What happened to constitutional law?????????? No city has the right to ban guns.
Gays trump Constitution. It’s written in the Bill Of Rights.
Hitler banned guns in Germany too.
I say let the Handgub Ban (Proposition H) stand as is.
Section 2 prohibits the sale or transfer of handguns or ammunition, with no exceptions noted.
Section 3 permits law enforcement officers to possess handguns in the performance of their duties. Section 3 makes no mention of ammunition.
Bottom line?
No more handgun sales to law enforcement officer (Section 2), although those that they have they can keep (Section 3).
No more ammuntion sales to the S.F.P.D. (Section 2).
If a police officer collects a handgun at a crime scene, he can’t hand it over to Forensics (that would be a Section 2 transfer), nor can it be passed on to the district attorney to be used as evidence (another illegal transfer).
Let it stand, and then listen to the people scream.
Well, did it pass?
It sure did. Read other comments the NRA is fighting it.