The most anti-gun bastions in the country are playing catch-up when it comes to topping California’s stance against the Second Amendment. The Golden State instituted universal background checks and bans on so-called “assault weapons” all the way back in the 1990s.
Since that point, the state’s lawmakers have only doubled down in their attempts to infringe on constitutional liberties.
Not only have legislators reinforced the “assault weapons” ban, but they have added gun registration requirements, limits to monthly legal gun purchases, and a “high-capacity” magazine ban.
California instituted a red flag law, imposed a 10-day waiting period to purchase a firearm, suppressed firearm advertising, and banned campus carry for self-defense.
Need more? There are now background checks for ammunition purchases and restrictions that demand all ammunition be bought from state-approved vendors within California.
Has this helped?
The state ranks first on gun control advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety’s list of states measuring the strength of their gun laws. However, Breitbart News reported last June that California is also number one nationally in “active shooter incidents” for 2021.
Now we can add another to the state’s long registry of “active shooter incidents.”
Details are sketchy but police are searching for a male suspect in the Saturday mass shooting. Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna reported that survivors of the attack gave differing descriptions of the assailant, though investigators initially said they were looking for a man of Asian descent.
Luna said the suspect entered the dance hall in the city of Monterey Park and opened fire. At some point he was apparently disarmed by patrons before escaping. “He walked in there with a firearm and some individuals wrestled the firearm away from him, and that individual took off.”
Police reportedly are searching for a white cargo van that is possibly connected to the suspect’s escape.
Interestingly, Luna added that investigators “don’t believe (the weapon) was an assault rifle at this time.” Local resident Wong Wei told the Los Angeles Times that their friend saw the shooter with what was described as a “long gun” firing indiscriminately.
More than any other state in the Union, California subjects its citizens to strenuous regulations and has all but nullified the Second Amendment. The right to self-defense is but a shadow of what the Founding Fathers intended when they framed the Constitution, and residents have few alternatives to protect themselves from violent criminals.
But what has the state gained through its sweeping regulations of firearms? How has it benefited from stripping away constitutional freedoms from law-abiding citizens?
Unfortunately, all it is left with is a defenseless population subject to the irrational and unpredictable whims of violent criminals. The nation’s strictest gun control measures did not protect the innocent victims in Saturday’s shooting, and they very well may have prevented a good person from defending the crowd from the vicious assault.
Do state leaders believe that even one criminal has given up their weapons because of their laws?
Of course not. Gun control laws are only effective in controlling how law-abiding citizens possess weapons to defend themselves. If they had the desired result, California, Chicago, Washington D.C., and New York City would be urban paradises where people live without fear of having their lives disrupted or even ended by senseless violence.
Instead, good people are stripped of their constitutional rights due to the actions of lawbreakers. That is what California has done, and it did nothing to prevent the weekend tragedy.
