OC Sheriff Hutchens to retire, endorses Don Barnes

[DVSmith]

From a facebook post:

ATTN Orange County voters: In 2005/06 A OCSD Sgt. popped up on my a radar. A young, smart Sergeant that was destined to go places. At that time with no political ambitions he was very Pro-2A and very Pro CCW. As he advanced through the ranks, every time he was over the Professional Standards Division which runs the CCW Bureau, good things always happened. Once he became the Under Sheriff, changes took off like a rocket. Allowing five guns instead of three, now unlimited. Changing the course of fire to less rounds. Taking the whole process online to cut down the renewal process from 6 months to 6 weeks. This list goes on.

Don Barnes is now running for Sheriff and needs our help. He is now a member of this Closed group. He will answer your questions here when he has time. He can not campaign on county time.

HUGE NOTE: Being still involved in Law Enforcement, I RESPECT Rank. Don doesn't like to be called Chief or Under Sheriff. While I have a huge problem with that, I honor and respect his wishes. That is very hard for me. Just call him Don.

[basket of deplorables]

So any updates on best candidate?
Seems top 2 are Barnes and Harrington at this time.

[Citadelgrad87]

Time is wasting.

Does anyone have info to share on this?

[JackOfClubs]

Last time, two pro ccw candidates split the vote and both lost.

Not true, actually. Hutchens won with more than 50% of the vote. Even if one of her opponents had dropped out and ALL of his votes had gone over the other, (an unlikely occurrence), she still would have won.

I have heard good things about Barnes (similar to DVSmith's post above) but the following makes me wonder:

Barnes stated he favors “reasonable issue” over shall-issue (despite the success of shall-issue, which has swept the country over the last three decades). I have no idea how reliable that quote is, I just found it Googling Barnes.

Edit: Poking around a bit more, I found this PDF from 2012. Points 7 and 16 are the most relevant:

7. If the “good cause” requirement were eliminated from Policy 218 and from the Penal Code, thereby increasing the numbers of persons eligible to carry concealed handguns, neither the citizens of Orange County nor its law enforcement officers would be safer.

16. The “good cause” requirement allows Orange County and the State to limit the number of weapons that the public at large has access to immediately, which protects both officers and the public. Increasing the numbers of concealed weapons increases the threat and possibility of firearm violence to the community at large and to law enforcement officers.

Trying to give this the benefit of the doubt, this was before the Peruta decision, which seems to have changed the policy. At least Barnes cites Peruta in this (very brief) clip where he defends his 2A credentials. Still, he goes into great detail (under penalty of perjury) in explaining why the Good Cause requirement is necessary. Hard to reconcile that with his current position.

[SupermotoGlock]

[gunslingers]

Do we know which candidate is supported by California Rifle and Pistol Association (CRPA)?

[Glock Fan]

Do we know which candidate is supported by California Rifle and Pistol Association (CRPA)?

CRPA endorses Barnes. It's on their website.

[kriller134]

Anyone have the pending results?

[Oceanbob]

Anyone have the pending results?

[CASoxFan]

Barnes hasn't officially won yet. Right now he has >50% of the vote, which would mean he wins, but once they tally all the ballots if that falls below 50% he goes into a run-off against Nguyen, which is a very scary proposition as from what I can read between the lines he is not pro-CCW. I am hoping it doesn't come to this.