California Seeks To Ban Body Armor With HR 5344

EDITOR’S NOTE:  Everyday I wake up and say, if not out loud then quietly in my mind – “Thank God I don’t live in California…”  For those of you who do, the avalanche of anti-Constitutional provisions continues, and unfortunately, laws pursued by the establishment in California are laws they will eventually seek for all of us.  It is vital that we watch such legislation closely and work to obstruct it, even if we are not in CA.  Why do civilians “need” body armor?  It doesn’t matter.  We WANT body armor, and it is our Constitutional right not to mention our inborn right to be able to defend ourselves from modern weaponry and modern tyranny.  We do not need to explain to politicians why it is not wrong for citizens to own inert steel plates wrapped in Cordura.  It is NOT their concern, and it is not a privilege they have the authority to take away.  Until said politicians finally grasp this simple reality, the problems between the public and the state are only going to grow…

The following article from NBC gives Californians the bad news:

Rep. Mike Honda, D-San Jose, has announced legislation that would block civilians from accessing military-grade body armor to prevent criminals from using them in gun battles with law enforcement.

Honda, speaking at a news conference in San Jose Wednesday morning with police chiefs and the district attorneys and sheriffs from Santa Clara and Alameda counties, said his proposal would discourage criminals from wearing enhanced body armor to commit mass shootings.

“This bill will keep military body armor out of the wrong hands,” Honda said. “It would ensure that only law enforcement, firefighters and other first responders would be able to access enhanced body armor.”

“We’re not talking about just a standard bullet-proof vest,” he said. “We’re talking about body armor that is designed for warfare, designed to protect against law enforcement ammunitions.”

Honda said shootings by armored assailants are becoming a trend in recent years and said that according to experts, “access to military-grade body armor emboldens criminals and mass shooters to act.”

 “There’s nothing more dangerous than an unstoppable, well-armored shooter,” he said. “The law enforcement community sees an increase in use of body armor in violent, gun-related crimes.”

The congressman cited a shooting on July 22 in Riverside County, where a man wearing body armor and armed with an assault rifle shot and killed two sheriff’s deputies and wounded another.

 “We should be asking ourselves, why is this armor available to just anyone, if it was designed to be used only by our soldiers to take to war?” Honda said.

He said he introduced the bill, H.R. 5344, the Responsible Body Armor Possession Act of 2014, in Congress last week.