It hasn’t taken former Assemblyman Fabio Fabian Nunez much time to embroil himself in another controversial piece of legislation. First, the assemblyman used his close personnel relationship with Governor Schwarzenegger to get his son’s sentence commuted for the murder of a fellow college student, and now the disgraced state lawmaker has taken on the airgun/Airsoft and BB gun industry.
When it comes to the firearms industry, State Senator Kevin deLeón (D-22nd) can always find new ways to insult voters and this time he has allowed former Democratic Assemblyman-turned lobbyist, Nunez, to add an amendment to SB798 excluding his clients in the paintball industry and saving them millions of dollars.
Nunez’ new employer, Mercury Public Affairs, a lobbying firm, has amended SB 798 exempting his client’s paintball guns from the proposed state coloration requirement. Meanwhile, those who are unable to curry political favor in Sacramento are stuck with the tab, one that will put some manufacturers out of business.
The latest controversial legislation, SB 798, takes aim at the wildly popular BB guns, airguns and Airsoft gun industry. The bill is sponsored by California State Senator deLeón, the Los Angeles Police Department and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, a long-time political ally of Nunez and de León.
SB 798 was proposed in response to the December 18, 2010 shooting of a Los Angeles 13-year-old boy by a LAPD Officer who thought the child was carrying a firearm. However, the child’s weapon turned out to be a pellet gun.
LAPD Chief Charlie Beck told The Los Angeles Times after the shooting; “We have seen far too much heartbreak involving these types of realistic-looking guns that are labeled as toys.”
Nevertheless, this unfortunate accident sparked another controversial idea from the LAPD- making airguns, Airsoft guns, BB devices and other toy guns conform to a new regulation. SB 798 addresses this issue by requiring BB guns to be brightly colored, adhering to the same laws and regulations used for imitation firearms. The new regulation would force manufacturers to retool their plants and paint the exterior of the airguns/Airsoft device white, bright red, bright orange, bright yellow, bright green, bright blue or bright pink.
“SB 798 will help keep our communities safe,” said de León the bill’s sponsor. “This (bill has) brought us one step closer to preventing tragic accidents, especially the shooting of minors and young adults, by law enforcement officers.”
While there is no proof that painting Airsoft/airguns or BB guns would result in fewer accidents, its consequences punish manufacturers who are on record stating this legislation will cost them millions of dollars.
These critics argue that “SB 798 would result in a huge, unjustifiable loss of income for private businesses, a loss of jobs and a loss of tax revenue for the state. For the Airsoft industry alone, this would amount to approximately $175 million in lost business revenue and close to 300 direct jobs in California. California’s economy would further suffer from the loss of related business revenue in office supplies, transportation services, food services, printing services, and other economic venues.”
Comments 16
In no way would I try to justify Scwarzenegger’s action, but he did not “pardon” Nunez’s son.
How about this for a solution. Don’t point a weapon, or anything that can be construed as a weapon, at a law enforcement officer! Problem solved and I didn’t have to call in political favors, register as a lobbyist or create yet another regulation that has negative impacts on the state’s economy and drives jobs out of CA.
Alger: Point well taken. There is a difference between a pardon and a commutation.
Another correction that should be made to this story…Nunez was/is a Democrat not a Republican.
Thanks, D7V.
This article originally referred to Nunez’s son being pardoned by Schwarzenegger. The story has been corrected to note that the sentence was commuted. It has also been corrected to indicate that Nunez is a Democrat.
Also, the first name is Fabian, not Fabio. Fabio is the Italian model known for his moobs.
Dvorak has an accuracy problem; she’s made a lot of mistakes on Rostra.
LOL! Bradley, indeed it is, we know as much, and still missed it…would you like to be KD’s writing coach?
TA,
I’m certainly willing to give KD some pointers. The writing isn’t the problem, it’s her proven inability to get basic facts right and propensity for making unverifiable claims based on unnamed sources.
Here goes:
— Be especially skeptical of things that confirm your bias.
Try to poke holes in them before you accept them as true. That’s something I learned from how scientists do research, or at least how good research is performed. Part of your mind should lean over backward to make the devil’s advocate case against the fact or allegation you think is true. Find the flaw in your story before your critics do.
— Proofread carefully to see if you anything out.
I constantly reread my articles to see if I’ve omitted anything that should be in the story. I may omit something just because I know it and assume people know too.
— Check for misspellings, especially of names.
Google is your friend here. Google Fabio Nunez and you get Fabian Nunez. You’ll also find out he is a Democrat.
— Don’t base your story on unnamed sources. The reader has no idea if they’re true, and this invites distrust. Unnamed sources can blow up in your face, as they did to Mediaite’s Tommy Christopher in Weinergate. Christopher was so happy about his scoop, and no other journalists could find the teen Tweeters. There was a very good reason: they were fake identities.
— I think KD should have someone else read her stories before she publishes them, until she learns these principles.
This is not a question of whether a disputed quote is authentic, where reasonable minds can differ. This is a case of repeatedly being flat-out wrong with major screwups. KD should be apologizing for those screwups left and right.
Moobs?
😉
Male boobs.
ACHTUNG! For the not faint of heart: Here’s a video of man boobs in action.
Fabio would be jealous.
Does Dvorak ever respond to/read comments?
Bastinda,
I may soon write a post about Dvorak’s credibility problems. Besides preposterous stories, she simply can’t get her facts right.
Moreover, Narco News all but accused Dvorak of plagiarizing its work. Its examples are specific and Dvorak should respond to them.
I don’t object to agenda-driven reporting, if the agenda is in the open. But I do object to reporting that repeatedly beclowns itself.
While Brad Fikes is a (fellow) libertarian and supports a much more limited role for government, for years he was a staunch backer of the global warming advocates and their science.. But he’s also a journalist able to reassess what he knows, or thinks he knows.
Many years ago Brad was a strong believer/supporter of the global warming science of the time, rejecting the naysayers’ case as he felt it was not sufficiently supported by science. But over time the science backing the skeptics’ case became more compelling. Brad reassessed and now recognizes that much of the global warming science is biased and grant-driven — and is at the very least suspect science.
Changing one’s position on such a monumental issue is not something that comes easily to most of us opinionated cusses on this board. I’m not sure I could be as objective about such matters. Kudos to Brad for his ability to challenge his own beliefs and knowledge.
Brad, feel free to correct my summation — it’s based on my senior recollections of times past.
Richard, you are entirely correct.
Climategate was an enormous event, and added to my growing feelings that skeptical science wasn’t being given a proper hearing. The theory of man-caused catostrophic global warming, CAGW, is a lot shakier than the press and the activists report. This is becoming more apparent as the activists turn up the hysteria volume to 11.
Even some “warmists” are protesting the hype and lack of rigorous science, such as at the IPCC. The IPCC recently published a report on renewable energy with conclusions drawn by a member of Greenpeace.
Here is “warmist” Mark Lynas on the problem for scientific integrity:
“The IPCC must urgently review its policies for hiring lead authors – and I would have thought that not only should biased ‘grey literature’ be rejected, but campaigners from NGOs should not be allowed to join the lead author group and thereby review their own work. There is even a commercial conflict of interest here given that the renewables industry stands to be the main beneficiary of any change in government policies based on the IPCC report’s conclusions. Had it been an oil industry intervention which led the IPCC to a particular conclusion, Greenpeace et al would have course have been screaming blue murder.”