January 1st, dozens of new laws will go into effect
across California laws focused on worker protections,
housing, public health, and firearm safety.
One of those new firearm laws is California Senate Bill
2,
which regulates gun permits in the state.
SP2 advances safety through a number of
avenues, including new storage and training requirements.
It identifies sensitive public places where guns may not be
carried and includes due process protections for those denied a
CCW license.
With more on these new gun laws,
I'm joined by Russell Stewart.
He is the owner of Beverly Hills Guns and president
of Force Protection Agency,
a security company. Russell, it's nice to see you not
on Zoom and face to face in studio.
Thanks for coming in tonight.
Great to be here. Thank you so much.
Why are you against SB-2?
You have a particular bone to pick as it relates
to where you cannot carry a gun as of January
the first those sensitive public places like city parks,
absolutely. Well, I'm not against all of it.
I mean, I think the storage and other parts of
it are actually very smart.
I just think that we have the most stringent process
to get a concealed carry permit in the entire country.
So you're telling me that once someone has been through
the background check,
been to the interview, been through the training,
some of these cities are not even doing psychological checks.
Now that we have all these checks and balances in
place,
that once you get the permit,
you're the bad guy, you're the person who could be
prosecuted for being close to a public park or a
synagogue or a school.
This is the whole reason why people are getting these
permits is because they're afraid.
So why would you prosecute someone who has been through
the process and done the right thing,
but the people that are committing these crimes are not
going through these processes.
Gun free zones don't stop people.
They encourage people because they know they're going to be
met with no defense from an armed citizen.
I know you're a father and certainly there's people watching
tonight who say I just,
I don't want that burden on me to know that
I'm going to take my child to a City Park
and have to worry that there's a gun nearby.
What do you say to that?
Well, I mean I I find that hard to understand
because in the end the people that have gone through
the process to get the permit legally
are the ones that are the responsible ones that are
the ones that have been through the background checks.
We know that they're good people.
They are there to protect themselves against the people that
are coming to those same public parks that have bad
intentions.
So I don't don't understand why we're putting the focus
on the law abiding citizen and making them fearful of
prosecution when the criminals,
you know, throughout, I mean everywhere right now are not
being prosecuted for the crimes of their committee.
We talked a little bit about that earlier with our
former guest,
another state bill that's really impacting gun owners,
SB 1384. This now requires,
as of January
1st, 24 hour video and audio surveillance in order to
record all entries and exits into your property and record
all parties involved in a firearm transaction.
So we put that information on the screen for our
viewers to take this information in.
This has cost you thousands of dollars.
What does this look like in practical terms?
Well, this new law is incredibly intrusive.
It it is been talked about actually now for weeks.
We have a law in place now starting on January
1st where all audio is being recorded.
Those thousands of dollars of cost has come from now
needing to store one year's worth of audio.
That is an incredible cost of servers and this is
a sign that you now have to put up in
your gun shop that says these premises are under video
and audio surveillance. Your image and conversations may be recorded.
The defense of this and the reason why they want
it is they say that you are the first line
of defense.
Well,
also too, if you see on that sign,
it says audio surveillance image,
but conversations may be recorded.
And that is a legal term that I don't understand
why the government feels that they need to be spying
on conversations.
You know, we have cameras.
We all have. You know,
we've always had cameras to look for crimes.
But when you're talking about people's conversations,
people come into our shop and have intimate conversations about
things that they've experienced.
I've had people come in who,
you know, have been the victims of,
you know, a violent crime.
So now they're going to be,
their audio is going to be recorded,
which is incredibly intrusive, you know,
and that's why I had announced yesterday that I'm actually
now a candidate for Beverly Hills City Council.
I am now going to be running for office in
Beverly Hills to try and fight some of these laws
to make sure that we can fight back to the
state and say our conversations in gun stores are a
private matter.
After October 7th, we've had the Jewish community coming in
in droves who are saying the most intimate things.
And to say that that that these conversations are,
you know, are not going to be recorded for what
purpose,
you know, it doesn't make any sense to me.
I know you think that this will have a chilling
effect,
too for customers as well.
Well, we'll have to have you back to talk about
your campaign.
Congratulations on launching your campaign for Beverly Hills City Council.
Russell Stewart, thanks so much for being with me tonight.
Thank you.