"Ask the Rabbi" by R. Mermelstein

QUESTION: Dear Rabbi Mermelstein:

What were the results of the turn in program for SKS rifles in California? How many did the state actually get back?

Marc Rosati
23 Jan 2000

ANSWER: Dear Mr. Rosati,

Those numbers will never be made public, for the simple reason that the State Dept. of Justice never had any records of SKS rifles with detachable magazines owned by CA residents. Any SKS with the original non-detachable magazine could be converted in minutes, and detachable magazines were commonly (and legally) sold all over the state. To return the SKS to legal status takes the same couple of minutes.

When the infamous Roos-Roberti Assault Weapons Act was made law in 1989, a deadline was issued for registration of banned weapons. The deadline was pushed back a few times by the last Attorney General, Dan Lungren. By 1995, six years after the law went into effect, the Dept. of Justice in Sacramento admitted that only 2% (two percent!) of the estimated number of proscribed weapons had been registered. This brings to mind Henry David Thoreau's essay, "On Civil Disobedience". The lawful owners of these rifles can never again enjoy shooting them, but they are secure in their knowledge that the state can never confiscate what it doesn't know exists, or where to find it. Those good guys (1500 of them) that did comply and register their proscribed rifles during the amnesty period that was later ruled illegal by the CA courts will now have their registered firearms confiscated, if the state hasn't done so already. Is there a moral here, somewhere?

Sincerely,

R. Mermelstein