Thursday, April 10, 2008

News: San Francisco Still Part of California

News: San Francisco Still Part of California

The California Supreme Court unanimously upheld a California Court of Appeals decision striking down San Francisco's Proposition H, a ban on handgun ownership. From the April 10, 2008 San Francisco Chronicle:

(04-09) 17:19 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- The state Supreme Court dealt a final blow Wednesday to San Francisco's voter-approved ban on handguns, rejecting the city's appeal of a lower-court ruling that sharply limited the ability of localities to regulate firearms.

The court's unanimous order was a victory for the National Rifle Association, which sued on behalf of gun owners, advocates and dealers a day after the measure passed with 58 percent of the vote in November 2005. The initiative has never taken effect.

The ordinance, Proposition H, would have forbidden San Francisco residents to possess handguns, exempting only law enforcement officers and others who needed guns for professional purposes. It would have also prohibited the manufacture, sale or distribution of any type of firearms or ammunition in San Francisco.

Lower courts ruled that the measure interfered with a statewide system of gun regulation, which bars certain types of weapons and allows others. The rulings did not address the scope of the constitutional right to bear arms under the Second Amendment, the focus of a pending U.S. Supreme Court case involving a handgun ban in Washington, D.C.

The only real hope for San Francisco, which keeps losing these battles over gay marriage, gun bans, etc., is to withdraw from first California, and then from the United States.

We fought a war over secession, long, long ago. But I think we might make an exception for Babylon by the Bay. And we should adopt the same visa standards for San Francisco that we have for Cuba, and North Korea. Perhaps we can get Berkeley to join them.

UPDATE: A reader suggests that we offer China a trade; San Francisco for Hong Kong. It's an interesting idea--but China isn't that stupid.

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