California Democrats are at it again, cranking up the gun control machine with a new bill that mandates a state-approved training course—complete with live-fire shooting—just to get the certificate needed to buy a firearm. This isn’t some voluntary safety seminar; it’s a deliberate barrier designed to price out, time-suck, and discourage everyday Californians from exercising their Second Amendment rights. Proponents cloak it in the language of responsible gun ownership, but let’s call it what it is: a de facto licensing scheme dressed up as education, piling onto the state’s already suffocating roster of restrictions like 10-day waiting periods, assault weapon bans, and microstamping fantasies.
Dig deeper, and the hypocrisy shines through. California already requires safety certificates for handguns and long guns, yet violent crime in cities like Oakland and LA continues to spiral, with criminals—who don’t bother with paperwork—driving the stats. This live-fire hoop adds hundreds in costs for range time, ammo, and instructors, hitting low-income and rural folks hardest, while elites in Sacramento sip lattes unbothered. It’s classic incrementalism: start with just a class, end with full registration and confiscation blueprints, mirroring New York’s CONCEALED CARRY IMPROVEMENT Act that the Supreme Court slapped down in Bruen for similar subjective barriers. Data from shall-issue states like Florida shows training mandates don’t reduce crime but do slash legal gun ownership by 20-30%, per RAND studies—perfect for a one-party regime eyeing total control.
For the 2A community, this is a rallying cry: California’s lab-rat experiment is the canary in the coal mine for national Dems eyeing Biden’s stalled universal background checks as a Trojan horse for training mandates. Stock up, train anyway (on your terms), and flood your state reps with calls—because if we let the Golden State turn gun rights into a privilege for the compliant, the rest of America is next. Fight now, or range fees become the least of your worries.
