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Blog Brandon Combs More on the LTC Initiative's Ambassador program and why we're excited about reaching 10+ Ambassadors per county
Blog Brandon Combs More on the LTC Initiative's Ambassador program and why we're excited about reaching 10+ Ambassadors per county
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Calguns Foundation Blog
More on the LTC Initiative's Ambassador program and why we're excited about reaching 10+ Ambassadors per county
Posted by Brandon Combs
on Thursday, 29 September 2011
in Carry License Initiative
Brandon Combs
Brandon Combs is the Secretary of the Calguns Foundation and a Life Member of SA
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Note: An updated tally of Ambassadors, by county, is available at the jump.
We've had a fantastic response to our request for applicant volunteers and folks willing to step up as LTC Initiative Ambassadors, CGF-supported local experts who will assist people through the application process and help us fix deficient or unlawful local policies. Considering the great show of support for this important effort to advance our right to bear arms, I thought our readers might be interested in a few additional thoughts on the program and what we look forward to accomplishing through this active partnership of CGF and civil rights activists like you.As a general rule, carry license applicants (historically) have had little to no support or guidance to help them through the convoluted process established by many local licensing authorities. Most licensing authorities didn't - or refused to - publish standard application forms and their procedures on the web so potential applicants could review them prior to walking through the doors of the law enforcement office's headquarters. Some still don't, and we absolutely will fix that deficiency as the Initiative works forward into the future. (Note that we have acquired and published the policy of every Sheriff's Office in California right here at CGF.)
Worse, some licensing authorities didn't even bother to make a policy (required by Penal Code Sec. 12050.2). One such law enforcement agency, the San Francisco Sheriff's Department, knew of this duty to publish a policy for over a decade before finally creating one after threat of litigation by CGF. (SF Sheriff Michael Hennessey's policy can be viewed here. I hope Sheriff Hennessey doesn't think we're done with forcing his department to comply with the law...)
Regrettably, few resources for applicants existed within the gun rights community until Calguns Foundation created the Carry License Sunshine and Compliance Initiative. Even some pro-"CCW" personalities and venues were often reliant on - or provided to their readers - subjective information and standards, creating an odd (and somewhat pervasive) institution of "carry license mysticism" that actually worked against gun rights. Assemblyman (now Senator) Roderick Wright's hard work of crafting and passing legislation to make the application process consistent across all licensing authorities in California was undermined by this sort of approach; however, we at CGF are committed to seeing through the vision of making all carry license application procedures compliant with state law and consistent across our great state.
This brings us to now. Thanks to you, our amazing supporters, and our dedicated team of lawyers and volunteers, carry license applicants will now have a robust network of CGF-supported local experts to bounce questions off of, send in "heads-ups" on local policies and policy changes, and make the entire process of applying for a California License to Carry (LTC) feel far less onerous. We're excited that applicants can be confident they have all the information and support they need to become licensed, and where necessary, take on licensing authorities to fix the unlawful hoops (many designed to dissuade applicants) they encounter.
Last year, DOJ informed us that there were about 27,000 "civilians" with a carry license in the entire State of California. We just recently received new statistics from DOJ, and we will share those with you just as soon as we have them compiled into a readable format. I fully expect that Sacramento's settlement of our case Richards v. Prieto (then Sykes v. McGinness) by adopting a "virtual shall-issue" policy (accepting simple self-defense as "good cause") has caused these numbers to change significantly. However, California's restricting the right to bear arms for self-defense to roughly 30,000 licensees - equating to only 0.0008% of the population (in a state of over 37 Million residents) - clearly indicates that this system is fundamentally broken - and unconstitutional. The one-two punch of our strategic state and federal litigation and the Carry License Sunshine and Compliance Initiative aims to make sure that every non-prohibited Californian who desires to exercise their rights, can.
If you haven't yet, please do join our efforts to advance our right to keep and bear arms by signing up to volunteer for our Initiative actions in your area. We also greatly appreciate your consideration of including CGF in your charitable giving by making a tax-deductible donation today. Freedom isn't free, but every single person can - and will - make a difference.
The cause of freedom and liberty is winning, my friends. We'll continue to beat back decades of unconstitutional gun control and take back our rights from the claws of oppressive government regulations with your help.
Best,
-Brandon
###
INITIATIVE AMBASSADORS - COUNT TO DATE (9/29/11 7PM)
We've had a fantastic response to our request for applicant volunteers and folks willing to step up as LTC Initiative Ambassadors, CGF-supported local experts who will assist people through the application process and help us fix deficient or unlawful local policies. Considering the great show of support for this important effort to advance our right to bear arms, I thought our readers might be interested in a few additional thoughts on the program and what we look forward to accomplishing through this active partnership of CGF and civil rights activists like you.As a general rule, carry license applicants (historically) have had little to no support or guidance to help them through the convoluted process established by many local licensing authorities. Most licensing authorities didn't - or refused to - publish standard application forms and their procedures on the web so potential applicants could review them prior to walking through the doors of the law enforcement office's headquarters. Some still don't, and we absolutely will fix that deficiency as the Initiative works forward into the future. (Note that we have acquired and published the policy of every Sheriff's Office in California right here at CGF.)
Worse, some licensing authorities didn't even bother to make a policy (required by Penal Code Sec. 12050.2). One such law enforcement agency, the San Francisco Sheriff's Department, knew of this duty to publish a policy for over a decade before finally creating one after threat of litigation by CGF. (SF Sheriff Michael Hennessey's policy can be viewed here. I hope Sheriff Hennessey doesn't think we're done with forcing his department to comply with the law...)
Regrettably, few resources for applicants existed within the gun rights community until Calguns Foundation created the Carry License Sunshine and Compliance Initiative. Even some pro-"CCW" personalities and venues were often reliant on - or provided to their readers - subjective information and standards, creating an odd (and somewhat pervasive) institution of "carry license mysticism" that actually worked against gun rights. Assemblyman (now Senator) Roderick Wright's hard work of crafting and passing legislation to make the application process consistent across all licensing authorities in California was undermined by this sort of approach; however, we at CGF are committed to seeing through the vision of making all carry license application procedures compliant with state law and consistent across our great state.
This brings us to now. Thanks to you, our amazing supporters, and our dedicated team of lawyers and volunteers, carry license applicants will now have a robust network of CGF-supported local experts to bounce questions off of, send in "heads-ups" on local policies and policy changes, and make the entire process of applying for a California License to Carry (LTC) feel far less onerous. We're excited that applicants can be confident they have all the information and support they need to become licensed, and where necessary, take on licensing authorities to fix the unlawful hoops (many designed to dissuade applicants) they encounter.
Last year, DOJ informed us that there were about 27,000 "civilians" with a carry license in the entire State of California. We just recently received new statistics from DOJ, and we will share those with you just as soon as we have them compiled into a readable format. I fully expect that Sacramento's settlement of our case Richards v. Prieto (then Sykes v. McGinness) by adopting a "virtual shall-issue" policy (accepting simple self-defense as "good cause") has caused these numbers to change significantly. However, California's restricting the right to bear arms for self-defense to roughly 30,000 licensees - equating to only 0.0008% of the population (in a state of over 37 Million residents) - clearly indicates that this system is fundamentally broken - and unconstitutional. The one-two punch of our strategic state and federal litigation and the Carry License Sunshine and Compliance Initiative aims to make sure that every non-prohibited Californian who desires to exercise their rights, can.
If you haven't yet, please do join our efforts to advance our right to keep and bear arms by signing up to volunteer for our Initiative actions in your area. We also greatly appreciate your consideration of including CGF in your charitable giving by making a tax-deductible donation today. Freedom isn't free, but every single person can - and will - make a difference.
The cause of freedom and liberty is winning, my friends. We'll continue to beat back decades of unconstitutional gun control and take back our rights from the claws of oppressive government regulations with your help.
Best,
-Brandon
###
INITIATIVE AMBASSADORS - COUNT TO DATE (9/29/11 7PM)
Alameda County 3
Contra Costa County 4
Imperial County 1
Kings County 1
Lake County 1
Los Angeles County 16
Madera County 1
Marin County 1
Orange County 7
Riverside County 2
Sacramento County 1
San Bernardino County 1
San Diego County 6
San Francisco County 1
San Luis Obispo County 1
San Mateo County 1
Santa Barbara County 3
Santa Clara County 5
Shasta County 1
Sonoma County 4
Yolo County 1
TOTAL County 62
Contra Costa County 4
Imperial County 1
Kings County 1
Lake County 1
Los Angeles County 16
Madera County 1
Marin County 1
Orange County 7
Riverside County 2
Sacramento County 1
San Bernardino County 1
San Diego County 6
San Francisco County 1
San Luis Obispo County 1
San Mateo County 1
Santa Barbara County 3
Santa Clara County 5
Shasta County 1
Sonoma County 4
Yolo County 1
TOTAL County 62