Interpretations?  by Tom Reynolds

Why does SCOPE worry that seemingly straight-forward words in laws will be twisted by liberals and used against gun owners?  Because liberals have abandoned any appearance of common sense and when they are in charge…right is wrong, boys are girls and birds are fish.

Last week, a California appeals court ruled that bees are fish.  You did not misread that statement it ruled that bees are fish.

In 2019, the California Fish and Game Commission designated four species of bumble bees as endangered under California’s Endangered Species Act (CESA), which explicitly applies only to “native species or subspecies of bird, mammal, fish, amphibian, reptile, or plant.” Bees can be considered a type of fish based on CESA’s definition of the category, which asserts that a “fish” is a “wild fish, mollusk, crustacean, invertebrate, amphibian, or part, spawn, or ovum of any of those animals.”

Bees are commonly defined by science as: invertebrates—animals that lack a backbone—and they live on land. Insects with wings closely related to wasps and ants, known for their role in pollination and, in the case of the best-known bee species, the western honey bee, for producing honey. 

Fish are commonly defined by science as: limbless aquatic vertebrates (animal with a backbone) with fins and internal gills.  They have never been known to pollinate of produce honey. 

Several of the state’s large agricultural groups argued that the word “invertebrate” clearly refers to an aquatic species. But on May 31, 2022, the California 3rd District Court of Appeals disagreed. The judges wrote in  their ruling that, “although the term fish is commonly understood to refer to aquatic species, the legislative history supports the liberal interpretation of the Act.”

So, by act of the California legislature and with the approval of the California Court of Appeals, bees are now fish and fish are now invertebrates.  (That fish are invertebrates should make fishermen happy since we will now have fewer problems skinning them.)

Science begs to differ with the California legislature in other ways.  Entomology is the study of insects, which includes bees. The branch of entomology that focuses exclusively on the study of bees is melittology, but it may also be called apiology. The study of fishes is called ichthyology. 

Apparently, “legislative history” is the ultimate determining factor in biology, in a radically liberal state like California.  (And coming to New York?)  Based on the court’s ruling, if California’s legislature repealed the Law of Gravity, would it be upheld by that same court?  After all, there would be no doubt of the legislature’s purpose and we have a precedent that the laws of science and nature do not apply when they disagree with the legislature’s purpose.

Do you think that is insane?  Count on California to top itself.

A $1.5 Billion bill is proposed in California’s State Senate to buy back water rights that farmers use for their business – growing food – and leave the water in the river for the benefit of endangered fish species.  After all, what do farmers contribute to the economy other than…food. 

And won’t that effect the endangered bees / fish that don’t live in the water and depend on land plants to survive?

And if you thought a bee is a fish isn’t crazy enough…liberal idiocy is not limited to the “Left Coast”.

Three Wisconsin boys are facing sexual harassment charges from their middle school over accusations that they used incorrect gender pronouns on a fellow student.  They are being charged by school officials with Title IV violations, which prohibits gender-based harassment.

Luke Berg, the attorney representing the boys disagreed.  "It’s not sexual harassment under Title IX, under their own policy, under federal law, and it’s probably a First Amendment violation. Almost certainly, if that’s their theory, that solely using the wrong pronoun, that that would be a First Amendment violation,"

Aren’t school officials one of the categories than can Red Flag Law a gun owner?  Apparently, judgement and common sense are not necessary traits to become a school official.