Guns are a big target in the 47th Congressional District. State Sen. Dave Min, D-Irvine, is running against former Republican Assembly Minority Leader Scott Baugh, also the former head of the Orange County Republican Party.
I live in Irvine now and worked as press secretary to state Sen. John Moorlach when he represented the partly contiguous 37th state Senate district, and worked on his 2020 reelection campaign in which he lost to Min.
In the past two weeks a neighbor received three pro-Min flyers from Giffords PAC, a gun-control group named after former Arizona Democratic Rep. Gabby Giffords, who was shot and badly wounded at a constituent meeting in Tucson in 2011.
These independent expenditure groups often decide an election. In 2020, the Correctional Peace Officers Association, the prison guards’ union, and the Association of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs spent massively on scabrous flyers and ads attacking Moorlach.
Several emails by me to Giffords PAC to clarify matters in their flyers were not returned. These flyers only praise Min and do not attack Baugh.
The three flyers differ, but all contain, “Senator Dave Min Passed Common-Sense Gun Reform Laws…Block Gun Sales at the Orange County Fairgrounds… It reduces the opportunities of impulsive firearm purchases at the Fairgrounds.”
The laws were Senate Bill 264 from 2021, which banned gun shows at the Orange County Fairgrounds, because it is owned by the state; and Senate Bill 915 from 2022, which extended the ban to all fairs on state property. After a federal judge threw out the bills in January, in June the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the laws.
The California Rifle and Pistol Association said it is appealing. The OC Fair told me they’re still locked and loaded to put on the Sept. 14-15 Gun & Collectors Show.
At issue is whether the laws violate the Second Amendment “right to keep and bear arms,” which was reloaded by the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 Bruen decision. Because the fairs are state property, the gun rights folks contend the gun shows enjoy a constitutional right to use them as a legal product, the same for the Sept. 8 California Bridal & Wedding Expo. Although, if the gun and bridal shows were combined, it would give a new meaning to “shotgun wedding.”
Said Min, a former UC Irvine law professor, “The restoration of my ban on gun shows on state properties – including most of the county fairgrounds sites that are owned by the state – will make us all safer.” The evidence shows otherwise. A survey by the Bureau of Justice Statistics of prisons conducted in 2016 during the Democratic Obama administration found, “Among prisoners who possessed a firearm during their offense, 0.8% obtained it at a gun show.”
Most prisoners (56%) got their weapons illegally, either through theft or buying it off the black market. Cracking down on gun shows, where the vast majority of customers lawfully buy guns and live law-abiding lives, will not make us safer.
Moreover, the Assembly Appropriations Committee found SB 264 would cost the OC Fair “millions of dollars” in lost revenue. That only hurts law abiding people and the 47th District.
The Giffords flyer also claimed, “California Law Enforcement supports Senator Dave Min’s plan to fund local police. The Irvine Police Chief said, ‘I would like to personally thank Senator Min for his direct efforts to help and support the Irvine Police Department.’”
Although the flyer and similar TV ads came from Giffords PAC, Irvine City Manager Oliver Chi wrote to Min’s campaign, “Unfortunately, the context for Chief Kent’s statements is not included in the print flyer or the campaign video, and that has caused confusion among the public.” Giffords PAC told Politico the “television ad buy has run its course, so it is no longer airing.”
I don’t know what the solution is to such fake claims. Although Giffords PAC wants to eviscerate the Second Amendment, its distortions are protected by the First Amendment. Voter vigilance is needed more than ever.
Meanwhile, see you at the Gun & Collectors Show.
John Seiler is on the SCNG Editorial Board and blogs at: johnseiler.substack.com
