Gun control cannot and will not ever prevent gun crime. Anyone who says otherwise is an idiot or a liar, or both.
One need look no further than California, the state ranked at the top of the Brady Campaign’s State Scorecard. California has “universal background checks,” there is an ever shrinking “safe handgun” list of handguns that are legal for sale in the state, open carry is illegal here and has been for more than a decade, and “assault weapons” have been illegal in this state for more than 20 years. All of those laws already exist here, yet every year the leftist politicians in this state create and pass even more restrictive gun laws.
Beyond state laws, there are local ordinances depending on where you are, and California happens to be a “may issue” state as far as concealed weapons permits go. Essentially, we are 1 step shy of Australia or England.
Despite all of that, yesterday, October 5, in Lancaster, CA which is located Los Angeles County, where it is next to impossible for the average citizen to get a concealed weapon permit, a Sheriff’s deputy was shot and killed by a bad guy with a gun.
The suspect was a 27 year old male who was on active parole. He was a prohibited person in the most anti-gun state (according to the Brady Campaign) in a county where no one but the rich and famous can get a concealed carry permit, who by the fact that he was on parole had zero protection against searches of his property or person, and he had no problem getting and keeping a loaded, concealed handgun that he used to shoot Sgt. Owen in the face and kill him.
.@abc7leo remembers his friend, slain Sgt. Steve Owen, who was shot and killed by a suspect in Lancaster https://t.co/aHm8Qj6SJH pic.twitter.com/PsViwCJF6Y
— ABC7 Eyewitness News (@ABC7) October 6, 2016
By all the accounts I have read, including speaking with a personal acquaintance of mine that knew and worked with him, Sgt. Owen was a good cop, and a very good man. He will be greatly missed, most especially by his wife and two kids.
Just a few days prior to the shooting death of Sgt. Owen, on Saturday October 1, 2016, the LAPD shot and killed a suspect they were chasing. The suspect, an 18 year old on active probation, was carrying a loaded, concealed handgun which he pulled on the cops just prior to being shot. The suspect, again, was a prohibited person in the most anti-gun state in an anti-gun county in a VERY anti-gun city, but despite all that, he had no problem getting and keeping a gun.
The gun pictured is the gun recovered off the 18 year old suspect. It was the 516th gun that the LAPD Metro Division has taken off the street thus far this year.
If you think gun laws can prevent crime, you aren’t paying much attention. The only thing these super strict gun laws prevent is law abiding citizens ability to buy, “keep” and “bear” arms. Just a note to the politicians, and to the people who keep electing them: Those aren’t the people we need to worry about!
Folks, we do not have a “gun violence” problem here in the United States, we have a violent criminal problem. The breakdown of the family has much to do with the ever increasing gang violence problem. Add to that, in California, the liberal politicians have decided the easiest way to fix our state prison overpopulation problem is to write new laws that release more and more convicted felons onto our streets. Just last year, the nation as a whole saw a slight increase in violent crime, but here in California we saw a 12% increase. As if that was not enough, the Governor is pushing a bill that is on the next ballot which will release even more felons.
You can pass all the gun laws in the world, but when you refuse to lock up the very people committing the violent crimes you say you abhor, it sends a clear message to the criminals. It is open season.