Op-ed argues California's gun control a "failure"
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California is the most gun-controlled state in the entire nation. That's almost impossible to dispute when you look at just how restrictive their gun laws actually are. While a couple of states are trying to give them a run for the title, California keeps on passing more and more gun control.
Of course, this is the city that's had two major shootings within a month of one another in that state's capital.
It's more than enough to prompt some in the state to say that gun control there is a failure.
Inevitably, last weekend's horrendous fusillade of bullets on a downtown Sacramento street that left six people dead and at least a dozen wounded generated demands for new gun controls in state that already has the nation's most restrictive firearms laws.
However, if anything, what happened just two blocks from the state Capitol underscores the folly of believing that "gun violence" can be meaningfully reduced by trying to choke off the supply of firearms – any more than the prohibition of liquor or the war on drugs succeeded.
The state's gun laws have hassled law-abiding hunters and gun hobbyists and some are in danger of being declared unconstitutional. However, Californians already own more than 20 million rifles, shotguns and handguns and are buying hundreds of thousands more each year.
Nor have these laws prevented the lawless from obtaining weapons via theft, smuggling from other states or the illicit manufacture of untraceable "ghost guns." Indeed, state restrictions have made the black market even more lucrative, mirroring the side effects of Prohibition and the decades-long drug war.
Initial evidence indicates that those who fired more than 100 rounds in a street crowded with bar and nightclub patrons probably were violating one or more gun laws. The two brothers that police arrested and are suspected of involvement in the mass shooting were charged with illegal possession of weapons – one for possession of an illegal fully automatic firearm.
Obviously, I don't disagree.
Look, if we take gun control arguments as good-faith efforts to make our streets safer, then I think it's safe to say that they just aren't doing what proponents claimed they would.
Meanwhile, when pro-gun legislation passes, opponents of those measures claim the streets will run red with blood, sometimes quite literally. And yet, that doesn't happen either.
California's embracing of gun control has been complete. There's not much else they can do in the wake of what happened in Sacramento, even if you support gun control. That's obvious to anyone who wishes to look.
And yet, what's happening in the state?
None of the anti-gun lawmakers in California are taking a look at this and realizing they're wrong. Despite the mountain of evidence that they're wrong, they still believe the problem lies not in gun control, but in too little of it.
You know what they call doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result, right?
Unfortunately, that's just what California does.
Don't expect any epiphanies from them over this, but you know what? I'd love to be wrong.
Tags: GUN CONTROL GUNS CALIFORNIA GUN RIGHTS GUN CONTROL FAILURES