Dear Governor Newsom,

Today, our governor signed two bills into law that flipped the 2nd amendment on its head. In direct response to the SCOUS Bruen decision, the California Legislation took the vindictive actions that has nothing to do with reducing gun violence but more to do with trying to eliminate guns all together and leave law abiding citizens to be defenseless against those who have made breaking the laws and hurting people as a lifelong career.

This is wrong for many reasons. I do not feel this way just because I am a 2A advocate, but because I am a citizen of California and I love my state and my country. I care for my friends and family and am convinced that these laws will not make us safer but will empower criminals to keep doing criminal stuff. Criminals do not care about gun laws. They don’t get to gun stores, they don’t do background checks, they don’t wait 10 days, they don’t care about magazine limits or what is on roster, nor do they care about an “assault weapons ban.” THEY ARE CRIMINALS!!!

So here is my letter to the governor:

Dear Governor Newsom,

I really am at a loss for words. As a lifelong democrat, I feel like you don’t get it! All I want is to feel safe in my home and when I am out. I am a well-trained Marine Vet and law-abiding citizen. I live in a low crime area, but my work and life take me to places that are not so safe. The bill you just signed into law, SB2, will take that away from me. California, prior to SB2, was also the most restrictive state concerning gun rights in our nation. Gaining a CCW in California has always been difficult to obtain. As a CCW instructor, I am well versed in the requirements to obtain a CCW License in CA. This is not an easy feat. We must obtain a clean LiveScan background check, minimum of 8 hours of training, and confirmed by the issuing authority. We live each day with the knowledge that what we carry every day can take someone’s life in a moment. But this is the weight we choose to bear. I have searched all over and have yet to find one instance of an unlawful shot from a CA CCW licensee. So, what is the purpose of SB2 other than to make a political statement to the far left of our nation. Again, I am a registered Democrat that is planted firmly in the center, as is most everyone in the nation. Democrats are gun owners and CCW licensees as well. And we are!

So here is my dilemma, SB2 has made my hard earned CCW license useless if it goes into effect. Not just mine, but thousands of other law-abiding licensees who will now become defenseless against the very ones that could care less about laws in the first place. There is not a day that goes by that there is not a news story somewhere around where I live that bad people have done bad things. Criminals have been emboldened by the handcuffs recent laws and policies have placed on those who are sworn to protect and serve. Now these recent laws, which were written to somehow stop criminal activity by going after law abiding citizens will have us as sitting ducks. You may feel safe, surrounded by armed security everywhere you go, but I don’t have that luxury. I trust law enforcement, but what am I supposed to do during the average 3 minutes (In the nice neighborhood I live in, more like 30 where people who look like me live) we will have to wait for them to arrive. Pray and hope the crooks are merciful that day?

I do understand your passion and the feeling that you must do something. That is what drove me to join the Marine Corps almost 40 years ago and for me to start my busy. I needed to do something. I needed to make sure that my friends and family felt secure in their own homes with the rash of home invasion robberies. I needed to know that if my wife were about to get robbed while having dinner at a sidewalk cafe, that if the criminal wanted more than her purse, she would have the knowledge, skills, attitude, and tools to defend herself. I needed to know that there were more people willing to stand up for what is right and defend ourselves when someone wanted to force their will upon us. I needed to know that my church family would be safe from someone coming into our service wanting to do us harm just because of the color of our skin. I needed to know that if I drove past someone who was trying to snatch a child on her way home from school that I could be more than a witness.

So, Mr. Governor, I am strongly against SB2 and all the provisions therein. Instead of making me into a criminal for wanting to be the citizen I have been all my life, use your political power to make sure that every school has enough teachers, books, and resources to make sure our kids are competitive, regardless of their zip codes. Us your political might to make sure that the mentally ill have the services needed so they are not on our streets when we are walking our kids to school. (Yes, even on my street). Use your newfound national fame to promote real change in policing. You know, how it used to be where they walked the neighborhoods, and everyone knew their names. They respected the people, and the people respected them. (Because they were from the neighborhoods)

I am a proud Californian and a lifelong democrat (Can’t go for a party that thinks slavery was good for slaves). The history of gun control and the Black community has made me very scared of the unintended consequences. These laws will undoubtedly be enforced heavier handedly in the Black community. It will have no effect whatsoever on those hell bent on committing crimes. Only to embolden them to commit more, know that there will be no resistance. My faith is now with the courts to do what you refuse to do, follow the US Constitution, and abide by the rulings and guidance of the SCOUS. Even if we do not agree with the laws, we swore to support and defend the constitution. So, to disregard it, is a slap in the face to all those who fought and died to defend it. (I feel the same way about President Trump and the MAGA republicans!)

Sincerely,

Rick Archer, USMC

Archer Firearms Training, LLC

I Still Believe in the 2nd Amendment!

I have not made a statement concerning the recent mass killings and how my views on guns fit in on purpose. I never want to have my views take attention away from those who loss their lives because of the evil that exists in our world. My heart grieves over the senseless lost of life at the hands of these evil men. That is right, I said evil, not mental illness or troubled youth. It takes a certain type of evil to purposely go into a grocery store, church or elementary school and now, a hospital to kill innocent people who have never done you any harm.

But with that being said, I still believe that it is not only our right but our responsibility to responsibly own firearms. Just as before, these evil men used the fact that there would be nearly no resistance to fuel their evil acts. They cowardly chose soft targets that they knew that they would be able to deliver mass carnage with little to no resistance. This has been the strategy of evil people from the beginning of time.

Here are a few lessons learned from these events. My son sent me a text that said, there goes your good guy with a gun theory. He felt that a good guy with a gun would not have made a difference. Well I don’t agree. What didn’t make a difference was law enforcement’s ability to stop these events. They arrived at each event in less than 5 minutes. By then the damage has been done.

First lesson, evil people (criminals) don’t care about gun laws. They will get whatever they want one way or the other. They don’t care if the gun is “on roster”, how much the magazine holds and if it is CA legal. They don’t have to wait 10 days for a background check. They can by as many as they want, when they want. Only law abiding citizens will pay attention to those rules and therefore, we are left out gunned in a lot of these cases. Therefore, if more of us were prepared to confront evil, our chances will increase. That being said, I believe that there should be expanded background checks, within reason. Take out all the subjective requirements. I believe that there must be a way to take guns away from bad actors or someone who is at the risk of harming themselves and others. I believe that you should be required to some level of training before you purchase.

Second lesson is that we can’t depend on Law Enforcement to save us!!! They arrived in 2 minutes in Buffalo after 13 people were shot and 11 killed. They met the TX shooter before he went into the school and stayed outside for more than an hour while the shooter continued to reek havoc on two classrooms of 4th & 5th graders. The reason the Church shooting in Laguna Hills, CA wasn’t worst, members of the congregation attacked the attacker until they were able to subdue him. We have to be ready to fight with everything we have to save our lives and others.

I am determined be an  A.S.S.E.T. I mean I promote Advocacy. Safety. Self Defense. Education. Training.

Be an advocate for your rights. Politicians wants us to believe that it is all or nothing. Either make all guns illegal or no laws at all. I believe in our rights of gun ownership. African Americans has always been the targeted by the gun laws. Gun free zones, gun buyback programs and no-issue CCW zones are the modern day Jim Crow or Black codes. They are disguised as a war on drugs or crime, but it leaves us as sitting ducks for those who wish us harm. We must advocate for ourselves. Our nation has a history of arming us to defend her freedoms, only to disarm us so that we are not able to experience that freedom.

I promote safety. There is no denying that guns in the wrong hands are very dangerous. Safety should never be compromised. Safety should be practiced when storing, transporting or using firearms at all times. Safety should never be compromised.

As stated earlier, I believe that we are responsible for our own self-defense. We must Plan, Prepare, Practice and Perform for whatever life throws at us. Be situationally aware. Be a hard target. And if you have to fight, refuse to loose. Fight as if your life depends on it. NEVER GIVE UP!

Educate yourself. Know the laws were you live. Know your rights. Know the difference between the AR-15 semi-automatic rifles you can buy and the ones issued by the military and law enforcement. They are different. The media will have you thinking that they are all the same. They are not. Take a class. Read a book or two. Seek knowledge and understanding. Learn first aid and basic lifesaving steps. You cannot depend on first responders to save you.

Train. It really amazes me how little most firearms owners train. Yes ammo is expensive. Yes the range is far. Yes I don’t really have time. But the only thing that can prepare you for having to use your firearm in self-defense is training. While in the Marine Corps, I use to think, “Why are we always out here shooting blanks at each other?” “Why do we have to go to the range so often if we only have to qualify once a year?” That was until I found myself in a situation where I had to rely on my training to save my life and the lives of the men I was given charge over. I am not saying that training will ensure that you can perform under pressure. But I am saying that lack of training will almost always ensure that you won’t.

Bottom line, no matter how you feel about guns, you should educate yourself with the historical truths of disarmed populations and the affect it had on that population.

Rick Archer

Owner

Archer Firearms Training, LLC