California's delightful double standard: no ID required for voting--but those who buy a box of ammo will get fingerprinted

California officials have resisted common sense voter ID rules for years, most recently hampering the introduction of a ballot initiative last month.

But starting on 1 Feb. 2011, Californians wishing to buy ammo will be treated like common criminals. Fingerprinting and record-keeping of the purchase will be required -- to buy a box of ammo!

...the double standard is glaringly obvious. When we ask that voters produce identification as they cast a ballot — which would be a reasonable and necessary precaution against the very real and serious crime of election fraud — they tell us no, that’s un-American and racist. But it’s okay to pointlessly harass gun owners who are exercising a legal and Constitutionally-protected activity...

Here’s what will happen as the law kicks in. Gun owners will be hurrying to buy ammunition prior to the deadline. In order to get exactly what they want, in the quantities they want, in the time allowed, they will order from out of state. (That’s what I’ve done.) So we’ll see a short-term spike in purchasing…but much of the sales volume will slip away from in-state vendors. Then, after the deadline passes, California retailers will see sales drop precipitously...

...gun owners will find a way to make a large out-of-state purchase once a year or so... One way or another, a large number of us will obtain ammo while evading the state-mandated persecution. Gun owners are the sort of people that don’t take this sort of abuse sitting down.

When the numbers come in, and it becomes clear that Sacramento has done nothing more than drive its own vendors out of business during a time of extreme hardship when they needed help rather than mistreatment, some of the saner lawmakers will suggest that this idiotic and counterproductive legislation be reversed. It’s possible the bill will be repealed, although I wouldn’t count on it. More likely, the kooks in power will tell us it’s good that ammunition retailers are going broke, because now they’ll stop selling that nasty stuff that nice people shouldn’t buy, and instead open new businesses in green industries, and then they’ll hire lots of workers for good-paying green jobs...

California should change its slogan to "Where law-abiding citizens are treated like illegal immigrants -- and vice versa"!