When the Fifteenth Amendment was passed in 1870, it guaranteed the right of every man to vote, regardless of race. However, following the passage of the Amendment, many states set up poll taxes and literacy tests in an attempt to intimidate blacks and keep them from voting. It took almost 100 years, and the passage of the 24th Amendment in 1964, to keep states from limiting people's right of suffrage.

In 2003, there is a movement in the People's Republic of California to keep people from exercising their unalienable Second Amendment rights. California has adopted a new state law that amounts to a tax and a literacy test on the individual right to keep and bear arms.

A new state law in California requires handgun buyers to pass a 30-question written test and pay a $25 fee for a Handgun Safety Certificate, which is good for five years. A gun rights group is outraged, saying the new law amounts to a "literacy test" for would-be gun owners.

"It is an outrage that California law now treats gun buyers in much the same way that African-Americans were treated in the South to prevent them from voting," said Alan Gottlieb, the founder of the Second Amendment Foundation, in a press release.

"The right to own a firearm is no less important than the right to vote," Gottlieb added. "California is treating gun owners like cracker racists treated black citizens in the South during the days of segregation."

How far will California go to discourage the private ownership of firearms? Today the tax is $25, but before long it could be $200, and the written test could be made more and more difficult.

I get nervous whenever State governments attempt to limit the Bill of Rights. How long before they start charging people for their right to a jury trial, or institute a 'religion tax'?