One little thing that always interests me about California is that we used to be "The Wild West" state, you know, the place where EVERYONE has a gun to save their ass with, and the politicians realized that the law-abiding citizens should be armed to protect themselves from the bad guys.. yet somehow we became one of the most firearm regulated states in the country (Granted some are worse, but they're on the east, the east was never the Wild West.. just the Tame East)

How the heck did we jump from one to the other in a little over a century? Hell, if this fork of history repeats itself, I'll give my future grandchildren money to move to a different, more-free state.

What was the big excuse to introduce gun control in the first place? That we as a society were becoming more civilized, and therefore firearms were not necessary, thus gun control should be enacted because a civilized society should not have murders and crime and whatnot?? If that was the reasoning of the time, then I would have to say that the politicians were falsely using broad generalizations about the society, however they need to realize that not all of the people in the society need to be civilized for the society to be considered so.

Alright.. It's 2:47AM, enough ranting. Lee signing out.

I think it all goes back to immigration. Both legal and ILLEGAL. Most, if not all, immigrants come from restrictive countries. They do not care if politicians pass laws against gun owners. After all, it was never legal in their country. Politicians are always playing to the immigrants for votes. Both legal and illegal votes. "If you vote for me look at what I can give you"- free medical, more welfare benefits, free education, legal status, etc..You fill in the blank. I could go on and on but it makes me sick. It'll never change unless they tighten up voter registration and close the borders.

Well with very few exceptions California wasn't ever too Wild West compared to a lot of others.  It was pretty much laid back until just before the Gold Rush.  Although with the Revolutions and Changuanosos, later Spanish/Mexican California got pretty hairy.  The Gold Rush era kept things lively through the 50's by the 60's things were calming down and the transcontinental RR was through in 69 so things down right civilized after that.

Polite society didn't carry (at least openly) or really have a need to much after 1870's.

Exceptions being the east of the Sierra and Mojave Mining Districts, Barbary Coast in San Francisco, they stayed wilder longer.

I think it's from two factors - the movement into urban areas and the lack of positive experences with firearms as a result.

The ratio of urban to rural voters is tilting faster and faster. Urban voters tend to vote Democrat looking for a strong central government to regulate their lives. When there's 500 people living within a nine iron shot you need controls in place to limit peoples actions. Like rats in a cage once a certain density is hit the society falls apart. We bump into each other too much - gangs, drugs, blight follow.

Inside the cities only three people have guns - the military, police, and gang members. Two represent "the man" and the third the killers that live ammong them.

These people don't hunt or target shoot and see the only purpose of a firearm is to kill. They probably know more than one person murdered with a firearm. If they bother to dial 911 the cops, if they show up, are only minutes away.

When the radicals in the 60's took up against society and the Viet Nam war many armed themselves. I remember the gun battles between various radical groups and the police. Wild West indeed.

i think it goes back to right after WW2, ltos of military men spent time in kali, boot camp or deploying for the pacific theather etc.
then the defense industry figures out that you can build planes here all year long OUTSIDE. so people once again come from the east coast to work in these related jobs, and men military men planted roots here as well.
so now what you have is all these transplants telling all there "big city no gun knowledge half frozen east coast" friends how nice it is out here, and they all move here.
then theres the movie industry who moves here to produce movies in great locations, in great weather, etc. and really builds up the "beach paradise" thing which brings more fantasy minded people here. idiots who think they are going to get famous by walking down the street in hollywood and bump into steven spielberg and be a STAR.
then theres the immigrants and illegal aliens who arent allowed to have guns, and in there country only the police have guns, and they are scared of it and want to ban it because they dont understand it.

does that sum it up ?

in other words "WELCOME TO KALIFORNIA ...NOW GO HOME!!!"  

I have to agree with Paul on the urban angle.  If you look at major cities most are restrictive when it comes to firearms and are rat nests for Democrats. What is bad for California is that we have two major cities which really offsets the conservative areas.

It's because almost all of our state and federal representatives are commies.  I say almost because I am luck enough to be in Rep. Pombo's congressional district.  He is a normal person but both of our senators and all other representatives surrounding my area are big time commie gun grabbers.  Democrats targeted California a long time ago for occupation and they have almost completed it.

Lots of my clients are in the entertainment industry, they're mostly liberal Democrat supporters.  Seems to me the more money they have, the more educated they are, the more they're anti-gun, naive and pro government imposed life style-for the rest of us.  They live and work in rich and safe neighborhoods and can afford elaborate armed patrols and security, where cops will show up in number in a hurry.  The middle class on down don't have that kind of luxury, especially if you live in questionable neighborhoods like South Central and other god foresaken gang lands.  Democrats get a lot of contribution from Hollywood.
It's a casual observation: I see a lot more NRA, American flag, support our troops stickers on pickup trucks and US made SUVs (except the luxury ones).  I rarely see such display of patriotism on BMW, Mercedes, Volvo, etc.  Instead they usually have some stupid sticker like "War is not the answer".

My little Honda SUV (all I can afford) has a large American flag with an image of an M1 Carbine standing against it. Above it I have "The US Constitution isn't just a good idea, it's the law" and below "God Bless America"

I've started to notice the liberal cars too - forgot to add the classic old VW mini-bus with the bumper stickers - always a liberal.

California became the Domesticated West. (or as some might say, whipped!)

I say this because I was born and raised in So Cal and it was bad enough that I had to leave like a political refugee.

I don't know if CA can be salvaged or not.

Unless Hollywood with its associated work force leaves CA, I doubt it.