By Katy Grimes

A wealthy Sacramento couple has offered to make one of the largest private donations in Sacramento history to create a natural history museum for the city. Naturally, an animal rights activist and city officials are freaking out.

Paul and Renee Snider want to donate their extensive personal collection of mounted polar bears, lions, rhinos, dik-diks, and other animals, some of which are rare, and build a nearly 180,000 square foot museum to house them. The museum would also be the new home of the California Auto Museum, which desperately needs an updated building.

But it appears the Sniders are being thwarted by the Sacramento Planning Commission, along with an animal rights activist who finds the project distasteful, despite the decades of charity work the Sniders have done for the Sacramento area.

And that’s the problem. Radical activists and the government officials who listen to them would rather kill a privately funded project than let thousands of others enjoy it.

The animal rights activist and Planning Commissioner

At a planning commission meeting last week, animal rights activists got the ear of Planning Commissioner Kim Mack, and challenged whether the city of Sacramento should approve the museum with the Sniders’ game animals in the same building as classic cars.

The Sniders have asked the city for permission to buy the land for $1.25 million, and will pay to build the new museum building.

“Some members of the commission confined their comments to discussions about the design of the new museum, while others opined on the necessity of reaching out to the community regarding the content of the new building,” the Sacramento Bee reported. “Mack addressed the issue more directly. ‘I think that bringing stuffed endangered species into the mix is dangerous to the reputation of our community,’ she said.”

Mack, a politically active Democrat, has close ties to Mayor Kevin Johnson, and helped run his first campaign for Sacramento mayor. Mack also managed a grassroots support effort in the region for the first Obama presidential campaign.

Mack has also been involved with Johnson’s Sacramentans for Accountable Government effort to put a Strong Mayor Initiative on the ballot, essentially giving Johnson more power.

When Mack was a City Council candidate, she took heat because emails in support of the Strong Mayor Initiative were sent to people on an email list that originated from an Obama campaign list. Mack came under strong criticism for providing the Obama campaign email list to the Sacramentans for Accountable Government group.

And then, after losing in the city council primary, Mack was appointed to the Sacramento Planning Commission by Johnson.

It pays to have friends in high places, regardless of credentials.

The animal rights activist behind the effort to kill the museum is Jennifer Fearing, a well-known Humane Society radical, and California senior state director for the organization.

“Destroying wild animals for the thrill of the kill, for trophies, and for bragging rights is anything but good for the world,” the letter to the planning commission from Fearing said, as reported by the Bee. “We share Renee Snider’s awe of the ‘beauty of wildlife,’ but feel that awe is best shown through shooting them through lenses, not gun barrels.”

“The two-page letter also says the city would be selling valuable riverfront property too cheap, and suggests the attractions at the museum would be unlikely to draw many visitors,” the Bee said.

“A hybrid auto/dead animal museum seems unlikely to generate enough foot traffic over time to be sustainable. We also question the rationale for the city selling this property for $1.25 million — which seems an exceptionally low price for such valuable property,” Fearing said.

Fearing and the Humane Society are behind many of the anti-gun, anti-hunting bills in the California Legislature. One of their bills, AB711, would have unnecessarily banned lead ammunition for all hunting in California, but was killed in the committee process. Fearing and her cohorts are responsible for the recent ban in California on bear hunting with dogs, hunting using trapping, and the name change of the Department of Fish and Game to the Department of Fish and “Wildlife,” which most people questioned.

The Sniders

Several years ago, Paul and Renee Snider had offered to build a smaller history museum on the campus of California State University Sacramento, but were forced to give up that idea when members of the CSUS faculty became unhinged at the idea, and heavily protested the offer.

However, and quite ironically, it was CSUS officials who had previously facilitated the permission from the government of Tanzania needed for the Sniders to hunt exotic animals in that country.

Oh what a tangled web we weave. When first we practice to deceive.

Paul and Renee Snider are well-known as Sacramento’s first couple in charitable giving. There isn’t a charity in town unfamiliar with their selfless kindness and generosity. Renee Snider has been on the Board of Directors for decades of the River Oak Center for Children, where I first met her. The Sniders have donated millions of dollars to River Oak Center, helping to provide group homes, education facilities and care facilities for children needing behavioral health and mental health services.

I’ve been to the Sniders’ home and have seen the amazing museum wing with the animals on display. I sat on a local charitable board with Mrs. Snider. They are very generous and good people, but are being maligned by people who have no idea who they are, or of the many charities to which they give their considerable money and time.

The auto museum

The California Auto Museum is worth a visit. It has fantastic collections of cars, but could use an updated, climate-controlled building. The last time I visited, I saw Gov. Jerry Brown’s old 1974 Plymouth Satellite, from his first term as Governor of California in 1975, and took the nearby picture of it. These days, Brown has plenty of Capitol police escorts to drive him around.

Despite the kindness and generosity with which the gift of the museum is intended, because some froth at the mouth at hunting and hunters, the enjoyment so many others could be killed. A history museum and a new auto museum would be wonderful for Sacramento, and could be a place of learning as well.

By Katy Grimes

SACRAMENTO — Call it “Gunmageddon.” The many anti-gun bills moving through the legislature would severely restrict gun ownership and use in California.

A major one is Assembly Bill 48 by Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley. It passed the Assembly on May 29 by a 46-26 vote and now is being considered in the state Senate.

It would ban the sale of magazine parts kits that can hold more than 10 cartridges, and require mandatory reporting of law-abiding citizens who purchase more than 3,000 rounds of ammunition within a five-day period.

Skinner says it’s easier to buy bullets than to buy alcohol, cigarettes or certain cold medicines. “Sales of some cold medicines are reported to the Department of Justice but not ammunition sales. We expect to show ID to buy alcohol or tobacco, but there is no such requirement for bullets. Bullets, the very thing that makes a gun deadly, should not be easier to buy than alcohol or cigarettes,” she said recently at a hearing.

“Criminals don’t buy ammunition in bulk,” Assemblyman Don Wagner, R-Irvine, said. “This is creating a government watch list of people who buy ammo in bulk — for no good reason.”

Wagner said a weekend sport shooter can easily shoot 3,000 rounds, as can a target instructor or an event organizer.

Anti-gun owners

AB 48 requires reporting of ammunition sales, requires licensing of ammunition dealers, and establishes other controls on ammunition sales similar to current controls on firearms sales.

And AB 48 makes it illegal for gun owners to purchase parts that allow them to convert their guns into assault-style weapons that can fire more than 10 rounds of bullets without reloading.

Justifying this overreach of government, Skinner’s motivation behind the bill are the recent mass shootings in a theater in Aurora, Colo., and at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. “We’re trying to make it just a little bit more difficult for someone to be able to carry out a mass shooting,” Skinner said at a recent hearing.

But Skinner is putting the target on lawful gun owners, who purchase ammunition and gun kits legally from gun stores. Criminals don’t shop for legal gun merchandise at gun stores.

As if targeting gun owners isn’t enough, AB 48 also requires federal and local officials to be notified when an individual purchases more than 3,000 bullets over a five-day period.

Gun lobby

California Gun Owners of America explained AB 48 in more detail:

* Expands the definition of “large-capacity magazine” to include disassembled parts even if the parts only “appear” to hold more than 10 rounds.

* Requires all ammunition sales to be done through an “authorized firearms dealer”.

* Requires all ammunition sales to be reported to the Department of Justice.

* “Large” ammunition purchases would cause an “alert” to be sent to the police.

* Criminalizes mere possession of repair parts for magazines.

* Allows off-duty peace officers to stockpile personal ammunition.

* Requires the state to track tens of millions of ammo transactions and millions of consumers.

“We need to do our best to give law enforcement the tools necessary to defend us,” Skinner said during floor debate of AB 48.

AB 48 goes to the Senate where it is expected to pass.

Medications

Yet experts say that bills would have no effect on mass shooters, who could obtain their weapons and ammunition in other states, or on the vast black market for guns and ammo. The black market in guns actually has been increased by the weapons spread around by Operation Fast and Furious. That’s the federal program for which U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder was found in contempt of Congress because he refused to turn over documents to congressional investigators.

The bills also don’t deal with the role of psychiatric medications in these mass killings.

David Kupelian is the author of “How Evil Works.” He asked shortly after Adam Lanza went on his killing spree in Sandy Hook Elementary, “Where is the reporting about the psychiatric medications the perpetrator — who had been under treatment for mental-health problems — may have been taking?

“After all, Mark and Louise Tambascio, family friends of the shooter and his mother, were interviewed on 60 minutes, during which Louise Tambascio told correspondent Scott Pelley, ‘I know he was on medication and everything, but she homeschooled him at home cause he couldn’t deal with the school classes sometimes, so she just homeschooled Adam at home. And that was her life.’”

In “How Evil Works,” Kupelian said it is indisputable that most perpetrators of school shootings and similar mass murders in our modern era were either on — or just recently coming off of — psychiatric medications:

“Columbine mass-killer Eric Harris was taking Luvox — like Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, Effexor and many others, a modern and widely prescribed type of antidepressant drug called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs. Harris and fellow student Dylan Klebold went on a hellish school shooting rampage in 1999 during which they killed 12 students and a teacher and wounded 24 others before turning their guns on themselves. Luvox manufacturer Solvay Pharmaceuticals concedes that during short-term controlled clinical trials, 4 percent of children and youth taking Luvox — that’s 1 in 25 — developed mania, a dangerous and violence-prone mental derangement characterized by extreme excitement and delusion.”

Senate and bills

The Assembly also is working on the following gun bills just passed by the Senate, about to be voted on in the Assembly:

Senate Bill 47 by Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, expands the definition of “assault weapons” to ban the future sale of rifles that have been designed/sold and are equipped to use the “bullet button” or similar device. It requires new “assault weapon” registration of all semi-auto rifles currently possessed, and subjects these firearms to all other “assault weapons” restrictions.  SB 47 passed in the state Senate by a 23 to 15 vote.

Senate Bill 374 by Sen. President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, expands the definition of “assault weapons” to ban the future transfer of all semi-automatic rifles that accept detachable magazines. SB 374 requires new “assault weapon” registration, and requires registration of all those semi-auto rifles that are currently possessed in order to retain legal possession in the future, and subjects these firearms to all other “assault weapon” restrictions.  SB 374 passed in the state Senate by a 23 to 15 vote.

Senate Bill 396 by Sen. Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley, bans the possession of any magazine with a capacity to accept more than 10 cartridges, including currently legally possessed “grandfathered large capacity” magazines.  SB 396 passed in the state Senate by a 25 to 14 vote.

Senate Bill 53 by Sen. Kevin de Leon, D-Los Angeles, requires persons to buy an annual ammunition purchase permit, requires the registration and thumbprint of the purchaser for each ammunition purchase, and bans online and mail order sales of ammunition to Californians.  SB 53 passed in the state Senate by a 23 to 15 vote.

Senate Bill 108 by Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, requires mandatory locked storage of firearms in a locked house regardless of whether anyone is present.  SB 108 passed in the state Senate by a 21 to 17 vote.

Senate Bill 293 by Sen. Mark DeSaulnier, D-Concord, bans the sale of conventional handguns, if the state Department of Justice approves the sale of “Owner Authorized — Smart” handgun technology. SB 293 passed in the state Senate by a 22 to 14 vote.

Senate Bill 299 by Sen. Mark DeSaulnier, D-Concord, turns victims of firearm theft into criminals for failing to report the loss of their firearm within an arbitrarily allotted amount of time.  SB 299 passed in the state Senate by a 24 to 15 vote.

Senate Bill 567 by Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson, D-Santa Barbara, expands the definition of shotgun for “short-barreled shotguns” that are illegal to own with a new definition so flawed it can reclassify handguns shooting “Shot-shells” as shotguns.  SB 567 passed in the state Senate by a 22 to 15 vote.

Senate Bill 683 by Sen. Marty Block, D-Los Angeles, expands the requirement for a firearms safety certificate from handguns to rifle purchases.  SB 683 passed in the state Senate by a 28 to 11 vote.

Senate Bill 755 by Sen. Lois Wolk, D-Davis, expands the list of persons prohibited from owning a firearm, including persons who have operated cars and boats while they are impaired; commonly referred to as DUI.  SB 755 passed in the state Senate by a 25 to 12 vote.

Assembly bills

And the Assembly also passed these gun bills:

Assembly Bill 169 by Assemblyman Roger Dickinson, D-Sacramento, bans the sale of handguns not on the state-approved roster.  This would ban the sale of millions of used handguns currently owned by Californians.  AB 169 passed in the state Assembly by a 43 to 27 vote.

Assembly Bill 180 by Assemblyman Rob Bonta, D-Oakland, repeals California’s firearm preemption law by granting Oakland an exemption to enact unique laws regarding possession, registration, licensing and subjecting gun owners to unknowing criminal liability when travelling through Oakland.  AB 180 passed in the state Assembly by a 46 to 29 vote.

Assembly Bill 231 by Phillip Ting, D-San Francisco, expands the law for Criminal Storage of Firearms and child access.  AB 231 passed in the state Assembly by a 46 to 30 vote.

Assembly Bill 711 by Assemblyman Anthony Rendon, D-Maywood, bans the use of all lead ammunition for hunting.  AB 711 passed in the state Assembly by a 44 to 21 vote.