Gun owners are an inventive bunch. No matter what law you try to cram down our throats, someone will come up with a way around it. If you ban a certain weapon, manufacturers will simply rename it, change a few things so they can claim it’s a new weapon, and then put it back on the market. Ban guns with certain features, and guns will be made lacking those features.

After all, there was no shortage of AR-15s during the Assault Weapon Ban, contrary to what the media may like to tell you.

Yet California hasn’t learned their lesson that score. They keep trying to take the “evil feature” approach, and what happens?

However, owners can modify their guns to get around the registration requirement, said Rich Howell, general manager of Olde West Gun & Loan in Redding. A semiautomatic rifle with such features as a collapsible stock, a pistol grip that extends below the trigger guard, a flash hider at the end of the barrel and a detachable magazine need to be registered in California, Howell said. But manufacturers and gun shops have developed a workaround to make AR-15-type semiautomatic rifles with detachable magazines legal under California law. Remove the pistol grip, collapsible stock and flash hider and gun owners can keep the detachable magazine and no registration is needed, Howell said. There are stock configurations that can be purchased that legally incorporate the pistol grip and stock, he said. Gun owners can also have a different magazine release button — called a “patriot pin” — installed on the gun, he said. However, using a patriot pin enables the magazine to be released only after the action has been opened, slowing reloading time, Howell said.

Eventually, California will probably try and add these workarounds to their lists, all in the name of keeping people obedient.

Trust me, none of this keeps anyone safe. Anyone who wants to break the law is probably going to start with violating California’s gun laws in some way, shape, or form. They’re going to get armed, possibly with a gun the state wouldn’t allow in the first place, and then they’ll go to town knowing that not a single, solitary soul in the state can oppose them outside of law enforcement, and that takes precious minutes.

By then, the carnage will have already happened.

But gun owners, the rebellious lot that we tend to be, look at these laws as both an annoyance and a challenge. Manufacturers will find a way around it so gun owners can still maintain their God-given right to self-defense, regardless of what California thinks.

Don’t get me wrong, no one wants these rules in place, and I know California gun owners would rejoice if they were all repealed tomorrow. These workarounds are just that, workarounds. They’re a pain in the rectum. Yet Californians have to jump through the hoops if they want to be armed.

It’s only too bad that Californian officials don’t get the memo that citizens will not be disarmed. They’ll simply get more and more creative about finding a way to do so legally, all while the criminals will continue to get firearms that conform to no ban whatsoever.