The executive director of Gun Owners of America made an appearance at the College Republicans meeting at American River College Tuesday.

“Sam Paredes is not only involved with the GOC, but he is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Gun Owners of America and is the treasurer of Gun Owner Foundation,” said Jorge Riley, vice president of the Sacramento Republican Assembly and president of the College Republicans.

GOC is a non-profit lobbying organization created to protect and maintain Second Amendment rights in California.

“There are three things that we, the GOC, are most concerned with and that is legislature, courts and the election,” said Paredes.

In terms of the legislature, GOC’s main goal was to bring down the Democratic two-thirds majority in the California State Senate. The Democrats lost their supermajority last year after a series of indictments.

As for the courts, there have been positive rulings since 1982 when Proposition 15, which intended to ban shotguns, long rifles and registered handguns, was defeated 2 to 1.

The GOC relied heavily on voting data and have used that information to their advantage.

“In five election victories the number of new gun owner voters were more than the margin of  victory,” said Paredes.

“It’s not a secret. It’s not magic. It’s just good, intelligent, political action.”

Right now there is a law in effect that says a person must wait 10 days after purchasing a firearm to receive it and that is something GOA are currently fighting to change.

If the law is changed, first time gun buyers will still be held to that law but any other gun buyer will get their weapon right away.

Peruta vs. San Diego is a court case that addressed the sheriff of San Diego, Ed Prieto, who would only give a CWP, concealed weapons permit, to people he deemed worthy of having one.

The court ruled that it “infringed upon the Second Amendment right to bear arms in lawful self- defense,” said Paredes.