News two weeks ago that legendary high class gunmaker Weatherby is pulling out of California just took on more importance in the wake of a weekend Washington Post article that put it bluntly: “For those who think California politics is on the far-left fringe of the national spectrum, stand by.”
The Golden State – long considered hostile to gun owners, the firearms industry and the Second Amendment – is beginning to look like Fool’s Gold. To read the WaPo story might lead one to conclude the state is going to the dogs, but some might consider that an insult to canines.
While Weatherby’s departure has been in the works for about three years, timing of the announcement at last month’s Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade (SHOT) Show was remarkably coincidental to the Washington Post story. The famous American firearms manufacturer is looking to be up and running in Wyoming by the second quarter of 2019.
“Here in the self-labeled ‘state of resistance,’ the political debate is being pushed further left without any sign of a Republican renaissance to serve as a check on spending and social policy ambitions,” writes reporter Scott Wilson, who covers California and the West for the WaPo.
As if to underscore the Post story, WND reported Sunday that the City of Stockton, which went bankrupt six years ago, will be dishing out $500 a month to low-income residents. The Economic Security Project is reportedly contributing $1 million to the effort.
As the state moves ever farther to the left – in the process treating gun owners as social lepers with regulations heaped on regulations – the WaPo acknowledged that in the race to succeed departing Gov. Jerry Brown, along with the race for U.S. Senate and statewide offices, “probably will feature a November ballot exclusively filled with Democrats.”
Apparently leading the California gubernatorial race is Gavin Newsom, former San Francisco mayor and now lieutenant governor. The WaPo article says he is “running to the left” of Brown, an observation that places him somewhere in the political Twilight Zone, compared to the political environment in the Midwest, Texas (a state to which a fair number of Californians have fled in recent years), and the South.
Losing Weatherby is just a symptom of what may be happening in California, both politically and economically.
According to the WaPo, California suffers from government regulation, the gasoline tax, housing costs and the overall cost of living. The poverty rate is highest in the country, according to a year-old story published by Politifact California in January 2017.
As reported earlier, Weatherby is departing for the far friendlier landscape of Sheridan, Wyoming. That’s a part of America where firearms manufacturing is welcome, along with the jobs and economic benefit that comes along.
There is an apparently serious effort by a large segment of northern and eastern California to split from the coastal region that encompasses Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area.
November is not that far over the horizon. California, and maybe the entire West Coast, seems to be rushing headlong to go as far left as politically possible without igniting insurrection. Just where the line finally is drawn remains to be seen.
