Your move, Governor Moonbeam.

The measure, aimed at an increasingly popular tactic used by 2nd Amendment activists, would make California the first state since 1987 to outlaw the controversial practice of publicly displaying a weapon.

The governor — a gun owner — has not taken an official position on the bill, passed by the Legislature last week. He has argued both sides of gun control issues in the past.

…because he’s going to have to make a choice now.  California law currently permits the open wearing of unloaded firearms; this bill would eliminate such practices, despite the fact that an unloaded gun is pretty much by definition not a threat to anybody. But it does serve notice that there is someone out there who is prepared to respond to a threat, if necessary… and if people are worried that carrying guns might lead to gun violence: oddly enough, violent crime has gone down as firearms carry generally has gone up.  Which should surprise nobody, but apparently still does.  That’d be mostly people for whom guns are some sort of scary evil magical item, mind you.

Anyway, the liberty-hating fascists over at the Brady Center (hi, guys!) have made it abundantly clear that this bill is part of their national anti-civil rights campaign, and they certainly want Governor Brown to sign this bill.  Will he?  Well, Brown’s a liberal Democrat… so probably yes, as soon as he thinks up a good-enough reason to endorse making it illegal to carry an unloaded gun openly.  Whether the US Supreme Court lets him get away with it is, of course, a completely different question…

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: If you’re looking for more information on open carry laws, I suggest… well, OpenCarry.org.