Chesa Boudin recall
San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin and his wife, Valerie Block, leave an election night gathering in San Francisco. San Francisco residents voted to recall Boudin. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
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By Larry Keane

Elections have consequences and San Francisco voters got exactly what they wanted. Twice.

San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin was booted from office in a recall election that had everything to do with soft-on-crime policies, including a refusal to lock up criminals committing their crimes with firearms while at the same time denying law-abiding citizens their Second Amendment rights.

Blue state governors, attorneys general, mayors and district attorneys with the same policies of sneering at law-abiding gun owners while letting criminals walk might want to take note.

Short Tenure

San Francisco is a city with strict gun control within a state that has among the nationā€™s strictest gun control laws. On top of that, the city cutĀ $120 millionĀ from its law enforcement budget after caving to the ā€œdefund the policeā€ movement.

San Francisco residents had already elected Chesa Boudin as District Attorney with a hair overĀ 50 percent of the vote. Boudin, a former public defender, was well-known as a ā€œcriminal justice reformerā€ who would bring a soft-on-crime approach to the office.

Tents line a sidewalk on Golden Gate Avenue in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)

His father was a member of the Left-wing extremist group Weather Underground who spent 40 years in prison for second-degree murder. His mother was also a member and spent 20 years in prison. The younger Boudin was raised by Weather Underground co-founder Bill Ayers and all of this wasĀ public.Ā San Franciscans wanted it. That was until they didnā€™t.

Residents saw immediate change with Boudinā€™s radical justice vision. While his diehard supporters praised his elimination of cash bail for criminals and putting fewer people behind bars, theĀ murder rateĀ went up, as did violent crime, shoplifting and burglary. ViralĀ videosĀ of San Francisco criminals running rampant became commonplace.

The situation was so bad early in Boudinā€™s tenure, the San Francisco police told people they were out of luck if certain crimes were committed. They announced, publicly, that theyĀ wouldnā€™t respondĀ to certain calls for help. Voters had enough. Boudin was just given the pink slip after more thanĀ 60 percentĀ of voters bounced him out.

Self-Defense

In early 2020, California residents were becoming alarmed by the coronavirus shutdowns and crime spikes. Those spurred people who previously supported gun control to buy firearms.

New gun owner Scott Kane explained Californiaā€™s obstacles for lawful gun ownership, saying,Ā ā€œThis has taken me, a law-abiding citizen with nary an unpaid parking ticket to my name, over a month. Meanwhile, Joe Bad Guy has probably purchased several fully automatic AK-47s out of the back of an El Camino in a shady part of town with zero background checks.ā€

Boudinā€™s soft-on-crime policies drove more Californians, like that of other district attorneys including Los Angeles District Attorney George GascĆ³n, to take up lawful gun ownership and protection of their families, businesses and homes, into their own hands. Even with all the hoops and strict gun control laws, nearlyĀ 4 millionĀ law-abiding Californians have purchased a firearm since 2020.

Coronavirus gun sales surge boom
Brian Xia, 44, picks up his gun at a gun store in Arcadia, Calif. Xia who is a first-time gun buyer, says he bought the gun to protect himself and his family. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)

ā€œMy gun store has had a run like Iā€™ve never seen before. It was just an avalanche of new gun buyers for the first time.,ā€Ā saidĀ Todd Cotta, owner of Kings Gun Center. Geneva Solomon, owner of Redstone Firearms also in California,Ā addedĀ buyers werenā€™t just buying firearms and leaving. They were signing up for training and practice. ā€œWeā€™ve definitely seen an uptick in the class options we offer. Before they would never sell out. Now they sell out two days after we post them.ā€

National Implications

The rejection of Boudin by San Francisco voters, one of the most progressive cities in the country, is telling. Voters want safety in their cities. That includes their fundamental right to lawfully own firearms for self-defense.

Support for more gun control remainsĀ low.Ā Americans recognize not enough is being done to control crime. Support for enforcing current laws isĀ high and voter support for a ban on modern sporting rifles (MSRs), is at an all-time low.

Whatā€™s clearly apparent is voters, even those in San Francisco, reject the soft-on-crime policies and approach of progressive prosecutors like Boudin. When it comes down to it ā€“ theyā€™ll send them packing.

 

Larry Keane is SVP for Government and Public Affairs, Assistant Secretary and General Counsel of theĀ National Shooting Sports Foundation.

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34 COMMENTS

    • This being ‘cisco, his replacement will likely be only slightly less bad and slightly more discreet in pushing badness.

    • Well, let’s get something straight. Elections are about “majorities.” If a prosecutor, or otherwise, start supporting the criminal element, it is because the majority are criminals or sympathetic to criminals. San Francisco has been taken over by the morally bereft, drug addict sidewalk needle droppers, sidewalk poopers, and common looters. Luckily, they had enough sane people left, to remove the prosecutor from this position. If they install a strict and hardline prosecutor, mayor, and other candidates, they could drive the criminal element from their city. Buuuuuuuuut, we all know they won’t. They are the left, and this is the future they want. Watch and see, and it will only get worse in these places.

  1. IT’s notb really about anybody having a single handgun for percieved home self defence or hunting is it?
    Consider this. From what I can gather fromm the web there are about 400,million lEGALLY held and registered firearms inn the USA and an unknown number of those held ILLEGALY. Since only, even after a spike in purchases during COVID, around half of all Americans own any kind of firearm it means that some persons may well have an awful lot of completely unnessessary firepower at hand. What for exactly since the requesits of the Constitution would be served by the ownership of a single firearm.??
    I can see a wish for HOME self defence in such a lawless society as the USA though how effective it actually is in general is not so clear cut. The case for STREET self defence is not nearly so clear and indeed the carrying of a handgun for STREET SELF Defence, according to existing statistics, is far more likely to get you killed than it is to save your life.
    Nobody actually needs more than a single 9mm 0 or .38 for home self defence or a FIVE shot bolt action rifle of a suitable calibre for hunting [I might make a exception for .22 rimfire ‘plinkling rifles] After all the Great Big Game Hunters of yesteryear in Africa and the Sub-Continent used heavy calibre DOUBLES or five shot ‘bolters’. But MILITARY STYLE semi-autos? No chance. THey have only ONE use to KILL PEOPLE

    • Albert Hall is hardness.

      IT really about having a single handgun for percieved home self defence or hunting? Illegal guns are illegal and indeed unncessary. Legal guns are legal. The requesits of the Constituion are served by the government not infringing on the right of the people to keep and bear arms.

      The clear cuts of shooting a bad person is stopping them from committing violence wherever that evil-doers might seek to harm others. Five shots of .38 not always! Multiple attackers. Meth heads amped up and able to take dozens of rounds before stopping.

      Hunting is irrelevant.

      Yes, MILITARY STYLE semi-autos have ONE use to KILL BAD PEOPLE. And that is a great use!

    • You should randomly capitalize some words when you ramble nonsensically on the internet. It makes your position so much more clear…. gfy

      Bob

    • DOOD!!!! Reread that pesky Second Article of Ammendment.It states plainer than the growing pinocchio nose on yer mug that we HAVE the RIGHT to KEEP (own, possess, buy, sell, make, destroy, modify and BEAR (carry about, use, depoly, hold, fire, tes, ship, ) ARMS (please note the PLURAL, thjat is, more than one.

      You seem to think that the only firarms LEGALLY owned are also REGISTERED. Maybe in the socialist commie run state YOU occupy that might be the case, Where I live there IS no “registratio”. The closest they come to “registering” is when they take my bribe and send me i the post in return for that bribe a plastic card, a Mother May I Card that “allows” me to carry about a loaded firearm concealed upon my person nearlyeverywhere I want to go )courthouses being the mst notable exception, but they orivide, by the same law, a secure lockbox where I can store my weapon whilst I am inside taking care of business. I;m OK with that because it makes the courthouse truly a gun free zone. Everyone entering is searched). Please note: with this system I, PERSONALY am the one being “registered” (despite my unalientable RIGHT to carry that firearm about at will) but they have no idea of what I will be carrying, or what I own.

      You then move on and imply strongly that unregistered guns are ILLEGAL guns. This is absolutely NOT so,

      Stop lying. WE will continue to buy, carry, use, repair, make any arms we deem useful in spite of guys like you who think otherwise. You can have yuor rotten to the core Britain and your disarmed helpless population with government uffishuls who look the other way when “certain people groups” are known to proliferate and promote (read: sell for huge profits) certain illegal and immoral “services” i what amounts to chattel slavery. AND for roving gangs of hoodlums to roam about using weapons other than firearms, every bit as lethal, to harrass, kil, rob, harm, thousands of Brits annually.
      Clean up your own nest before you start telling US what we shuold/should not do here.

    • “Nobody actually needs more than a single 9mm 0 or .38 for home self defence or a FIVE shot bolt action rifle of a suitable calibre for hunting…”

      It’s called the ‘Bill of Rights’, you insolent subject. Not a ‘Bill of Needs’, or a ‘Bill of Hunting’, it’s a fucking ‘Bill of Rights’.

      As in, I ‘need’ *Zero* reason to keep and bear them. I can, because it’s my RIGHT.

      Now fuck off to your little spinless island that lost all it’s real men in WW 1 and WW 2. We don’t take orders from ‘Nancy Boys’ like you.

      Is that clear enough for you, little boy Albert? šŸ™‚

    • Hey Al: Try carrying ANYTHING for the explicit purpose of self-“defenCe” back in your country, and see what happens. Then once you are out of “gaol”, you can then consider what we might carry.

    • RE: sir albert hall of shame…”What for exactly since the requesits of the Constitution would be served by the ownership of a single firearm.??”

      The 2A clearly states…the right to keep and bear Arms. It does not say an arm or a firearm, etc. If you were not so fixated on seeing what you want to see you would not have to be told that. Try again ol’ chap.

    • Albert the Subject,

      Reading comprehension is not exactly your strong point, is it, subject???

      Where, in the 2A, is “hunting” (or even “self-defense”) mentioned??? Oh, that’s right, it isn’t. IF you were literate, which you aren’t, and had BOTHERED to read, oh, say, the Declaration of Independence (you should AT LEAST know that one; we tattoed it onto your sorry arses before we sent you home in disgrace), the Constitution, the Federalist Papers, the Anti-Federalist Papers, and the notes of the Constitutional Convention, you might not need to be educated. But, since you’re an ahistorical, ignorant, limey subject, let me ‘splain it to you, Lucy – we have the RIGHT to “keep and bear arms”. Not “a single gun, for hunting”. Not an “acceptable” gun, for self-defense. Not a “plinking gun”. “Arms”. For whatever purpose we deem appropriate. We ARE responsible for the consequences of such use, as is appropriate.

      We don’t need to ask permission from our “queen”. We don’t need, or want, the “approval” of d***less Euroweenies. Your arrogant “disapproval”?? We give not a single shart. Don’t like that?? Cry me a river, subject. WE. DON’T. CARE!!! Now, sod off, swampy.

    • Prince Albert, haven’t you suffocated already? Someone needs to snap the lid closed on your can a little tighter. The United States shed ourselves of your ilk long ago. Call us when you need us to save your shit again. Until then, shut up and leave us alone.

    • Right oh old chap.
      The Second Amendment is exactly about we the people having gunms made for killing people. Has nothing to do with hunting.
      Your best bet my fine fellow is to shout for the repeal of the 2A.

    • Previously you were touting the SMLE but now want to limit center fire rifles to 5 rounds? You do realize you as a self-proclaimed former Chairforce armoror would know a SMLE or No4 has a TEN round magazine?

    • Albert Hall,

      No one NEEDS an ultra-high-definition television with a 55-inch wide screen–they can see all of their desired video content just fine on an old school analog monitor with 360 line resolution and a 16-inch wide screen.

      Similarly, no one NEEDS a Dolby 5.1 Channel surround sound system with sub-woofer for their television–they can hear the audio of their desired video content just fine with the tiny 3-inch built-in television speaker in mono (not stereo).

      A joyful and full life is about more than what we need, which is nothing more than one clothing outfit, a tent, gruel, and water. Life is about hoping and trying to create and achieve at least a little bit beyond what we absolutely need. That applies to clothing, food, shelter, furniture, televisions, and yes even firearms.

    • Itā€™s sad how you do not understand what the constitution is and means to be and just how far away from reality your perception is.

      Please do some research on why the bill of rights are such an important part of the us government and why it is there.

      The 2nd amendment is there to prevent the government from being filled with extremists and those extremists deciding without due process the commit atrocity or mass genocide on those people they are charged with protecting.

      Today it could be one group, and you may not be in that targeted group. Tomorrow you will be, and then where will you stand on the matter? When a group that you trusted turns on you and comes to murder or enslave you and your family, youā€™ll wish you had some way of fighting back.

      Yes, guns are made to stop a threat to life more efficiently and also give those that are less capable a more even chance.

      If the government has better weaponry than the citizens, the citizens can be easily oppressed by a government with evil intent and basically enslave and impose genocide at will. Donā€™t believe me? Just look at history both past and present. There are plenty of examples.

      However, vilifying the device used to defend oneself is misplaced. McVay murdered hundreds with a box truck and fertilizer bomb, others have used vehicles and knives for mass attacks and murder.

      The fault lie not in the availability of said tool, it lies with the people, societal acceptance of certain activities. Non-enforcement of existing laws and a lack of mental health assistance.

  2. Read this, it’s *quite* enlightening about how the whole criminal enterprise functions in San Fran :

    ‘The Criminal Order Beneath the ‘Chaos’ of San Francisco’s Tenderloin’

    https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2022/06/16/the_criminal_order_beneath_the_chaos_of_san_franciscos_tenderloin_836918.html

    Nothing will change unless the ones running things there demand change. And I just might have a way to do that –

    Order the wealthy with nice homes to “Do their part” and host street people in tents to live in their back yards, on those nice lawns. (Even better, the front yards as well). Order them to allow them to use their bathrooms in those nice homes, unless they have no problem with human waste on their doorstep.

    Watch how fast they stop tolerating that literal crap… šŸ™‚

  3. Chesa Boudin had better been glad the recall remedy worked…. because if he would’ve survived the recall, somone was going to deliver a more permanent solution… Gaston’ had better hope his recall works as well… people are getting fed up & ready to water the big tree…LAW and ORDER must return..

  4. ā¤Hi) My name possum I’m 240 years old in human age Beginning Pest nuisance at 18)
    I love being photographed and not kicked in the nudes)>Please rate my photos hhteepeeslashslashposdotid1234

    • “ā¤Hi) My name possum Iā€™m 240 years old in human age Beginning Pest nuisance at 18)…”

      Damn, it says here Possums only live 2 years? :

      https://opossumsocietyus.org/general-opossum-information/

      I’ve known you at least 5 years by now, how do you do it?

      Lots and lots of ‘medicinal’ Bourbon? šŸ™‚

      EDIT – “The opossum also has opposable thumbs on its hind feet for holding onto branches.”

      *That’s* how you do it! šŸ˜‰

    • Ha! Excellent. One question teepee crawler, did you get Moderatedā„¢ by Big Brother for your spamming efforts?

  5. TAKE A LESSON FROM CHINA , HELL BUY EVERY THING FROM THEM ANYWAY..
    ALL DRUG DEALERS ARE SHOT IN BACK OF THERE FRIGN HEAD ….
    AND IF CAN’T GET USERS OFF DRUGS , SHOOT IN BACK OF THE HEAD , THAT BE ONE SHOT THAT CURES IT ALL ….

  6. “His father was a member of the Left-wing extremist group Weather Underground who spent 40 years in prison for second-degree murder. His mother was also a member and spent 20 years in prison. The younger Boudin was raised by Weather Underground co-founder Bill Ayers and all of this was public.”

    Sometimes it true that, as the old saying goes, ‘the apple doesnā€™t fall fall far from the tree’. In this case probably in attitude towards incarceration and crime in general.

    The criminal justice system can not be ‘reformed’ by letting the criminals go, and giving them basically a ‘get out of jail’ free card, and not prosecuting criminals for their crimes.

    • “Apple… tree”, I present to you the idiot manchild in Ottawa, Fidel’s foul seed, as proof positive of this claim.

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