On January 17, 2012, the Supreme Court of the United States declined to accept and review People v. Delacy, 192 Cal. App. 4th 1481 (2011), review denied (June 8, 2011), cert. denied, No. 11-290, 2012 WL 117549 (U.S. Jan. 17, 2012).

In his Petition for a Writ of Certiorari, lawyers with the Michel & Associates law firm representing Mr. Delacy asked the Supreme Court to decide whether language from its 2008 opinion in District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570 (2008) concerning “presumptively lawful” restrictions on the right to keep and bear arms allowed courts to  simply hold restrictions on the Second Amendment rights of those with certain  misdemeanor convictions to be constitutional without being subjected to any  level of heightened judicial scrutiny. The Delacy case also touched on  what level of judicial scrutiny should apply to an Equal Protection challenge  asserting the government is creating discriminatory classifications that deprive  those so classified of their Second Amendment rights.

Even though the Supreme Court requested a  response to the Delacy petition from the government in October 2011 – an  unusual move that shows the high court had unusual interest in the case – Delacy  ended up being another in a line of recent Second Amendment-related cases  which the Supreme Court declined to accept for review.

Continue reading →

December 7th was an important day for Gun Safari, firearms enthusiasts and Second Amendment supporters in Los Angeles. A public hearing took place in Van Nuys in front of the local neighborhood council, which is one of the steps required during the  application process for a conditional use permit-a requirement to operate as an FFL in Los Angeles.

It is well known to most firearm enthusiasts in the area that Los Angeles is not a Second Amendment friendly place anymore. Gun shops typically close here, not open, but with the support of Calguns, CRPA, NRA and all the supporters who showed up to let their presence be felt, it looks like that might be changing.

Continue reading →

A crashed California Department of Justice (DOJ) website during the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday prevented the shipment of thousands of firearms to retailers in California, and cost legitimate businesses tens of thousands of dollars in delayed or lost sales.

California has some of the most restrictive firearm laws in the country. One of those laws creates the California Firearms Licensee Check Program (CFLC). It was the inability to comply with the CFLC, due to the DOJ website crashing, that caused the whole problem here.

Firearm dealers must be a Federal Firearm Licensee (FFL) in addition to having state and local licenses. In order for California FFLs to receive firearms shipped from other FFLs they must be enrolled on California’s Centralized List of Firearm Dealers. Enrollment confirms that the FFL also has a valid California firearm dealer’s license.

FFLs often do business with each other. Before an FFL, either in California or in another state, can ship firearms to a California FFL, it must first access the CLFC website and obtain a verification approval number. This number comes in the form of a Firearm Shipment Verification Approval Letter, which also states that the intended recipient FFL is properly licensed and listed amongst those authorized to receive firearm shipments (i.e., on the Centralized List of Firearm Dealers). Failure to obtain a Firearm Shipment Verification Approval Letter prior to shipping firearms to a California FFL is a crime.

Continue reading →

Executive Director, John Fields and CRPA President, Tony Montanarella report on:

- CRPA 137th Gala at the DoubleTree Hotel in Ontario
- AR-15 “Train a Soldier” program
- Gun Law Book
- Summit — Mid-May in San Diego
- Legislator
- Election cycle
- Shot Show

2011 ACTIVITIES and ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Each year the CRPA proudly presents its listing of significant accomplishments and activities performed over the previous 12 months. This year’s report is broken down into three major sections: Legislative Activity, Litigation Activity, and finally a listing of those activities and accomplishments that don’t fit into just one category or another. This is your CRPA in action!

STATE LEGISLATIVE ADVOCACY:

Tom Pedersen, CRPA’s Full-time Legislative Liaison and Advocate in Sacramento lobbied on behalf of members.

As you know, this was another challenging year for firearms owners down at the Capitol. The number of moderate legislators has continued to decline, making it difficult to defeat anti-gun bills before they reach the Governor’s desk. A number of anti-gun bills passed this year by a very slim majority. Simply put, we need more pro-gun legislators to turn the tide. There are credible estimates that up to 40 percent of the assembly members and several senate seats could turn over in the 2012 election cycle. 2012 may very well represent the best opportunity for us to tip the scales in our favor.

With that said, we ended this legislative year with some great results. Four out of the seven key bills we focused on went in the favor of the CRPA membership. Sunday, October 9 was the last day for the Governor to sign or veto bills. CRPA and NRA had a productive meeting with the Governor’s office on the afternoon of the 9th and stayed in communication with the Governor’s staff up until the midnight deadline. The positive results from the meeting were the signing of SB 610 and the veto of SB 427.

Here are the final results on just some of the key bills we worked on this year.

Continue reading →

Dear CRPA Family:

On behalf of your CRPA Board of Directors and Staff, we sincerely thank you for your continued support of our association over the past year.

It is only through the ongoing dedication and generosity of our CRPA members that we are able to protect our sacred Second Amendment and hunting rights here in California.

We wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New Year. May God bless you!

Sincerely,

John Fields
Executive Director
California Rifle & Pistol Association

In a victory for self-defense civil right activists, a Los Angeles Superior Court Judge has
ordered the City of Los Angeles to produce documents relating to the LAPD’s policies and procedures for processing applications for a license to carry a concealed firearm.

In 1992 and 1994, the City’s unlawful refusal to properly process CCW applications was challenged in two lawsuits. To settle the suits, LAPD agreed to a court ordered application processing procedure. The LAPD agreed to a definition of “good cause” that was articulated in the settlement, and agreed that all citizens who request a CCW permit application would be provided a CCW application at any LAPD station house, along with a copy of the LAPD’s procedure for handling the application,  and the procedures for appealing the denial of a CCW application. The  settlementsalso resulted in the establishment of a Citizens Advisory Review Panel, made up of appointed citizens who would review CCW applications denied by the LAPD and make recommendations regarding whether the Chief should reverse the  denial.

A memorandum discussing these suits is posted here.

Continue reading →

CRPA needs your help, but for this particular request, we won’t ask you to donate time nor money.

As you may know, for the last 40 years or so, your CRPA has proudly published and distributed our monthly magazine, The Firing Line. Over the last four years, we’ve continually improved the quality and appearance of our 24-page monthly publication: upgrading the paper, introducing color pages and photographs, increasing the size of the font, and improving the content of the articles and information. We hope you’ll agree that the value of this publication has increased over the last four years.

Consider this…all of our nearly 34,000 CRPA members in good standing receive 12 monthly issues of The Firing Line each year as part of their membership. About 14,000 of you are CRPA Life members and the rest of you are either annual members or multi-year members. Annual members pay only $22.00 per year ($1.84 per month) for their membership which, in addition to their 12-month subscription to The Firing Line, goes to support our operations, including our full-time CRPA lobbyist in Sacramento, fighting for your gun rights.

Continue reading →

Public comments are now being taken on the strategic vision for the California Department of Fish and Game (DFG) and the California Fish and Game Commission (F&GC).  If you have not commented on the Draft Interim Strategic Vision, it is not too late.  Comments are most effective if received by December 16, 2011, but may still be submitted after that date.

There are fifty-one stakeholder groups represented in the CFWSV process, and the hunting community is in the minority. The stakeholder groups include commercial fishing, recreational fishing, hunting, non-profit conservation, non-consumptive recreation, aquaculture, landowners, science, education, labor, agriculture and ranching, water supply and delivery, forestry, water quality, business/industry and environmental justice.

Continue reading →