Firearms Owners Against Crime
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
U.S.A. – -(Ammoland.com)- “There’s just too many damn guns,” community activist Stevante Clark told The Sacramento Bee Sunday in response to a “mass casualty shooting” near the State Capitol site that has, at this writing, has resulted in six dead and twelve wounded.
Clark’s feelings are no doubt colored by the deaths of two brothers from years earlier, one killed by police in 2018, and the other, a 16-year-old who shot himself in the abdomen with a shotgun in 2006. Those have taken their toll on him. That said, a subjective analysis of decisions and choices leading up to both shows that blaming guns will not provide solutions.
“The scourge of gun violence continues to be a crisis in our country, and we must resolve to bring an end to this carnage,” Governor Gavin Newsom asserted. “Rising gun violence is the scourge of our city, state, and nation, and I support all actions to reduce it,” Mayor Darrell Steinberg echoed.
It’s no coincidence that both career politicians used “scourge.” A word search shows they are parroting established violence monopoly lobby talking points. Get the sound bite out there, repeat it enough times, and that’s what most people are going to remember.
Keeping attention focused on a narrative means it won’t be focused elsewhere, such as the fact that Sacramento is a Bloomberg Mayors city, and Giffords gives California an “A” rating:
“California has the strongest gun laws in the United States and has been a trailblazer for gun safety for the past 30 years.”
The message here: the laws are still not enough. Every state will have to follow suit. And they still won’t be enough. That’s because, simply put, “gun control” doesn’t work.
As criminologists Don B. Kates and Gary Mauser showed in the Spring 2007 Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy:
“In 2004, the US National Academy of Sciences … failed to identify any gun control that reduced violent crime, suicides or gun accidents.” This was “from a review of 153 journal articles, 99 books, 43 government publications, and some original empirical research. The same conclusion was reached in 2003 by the US Centers for Disease Control….”
That hasn’t changed despite thousands of new “gun laws” that have been added to all levels of government since those findings were published. What we are, in fact, seeing, is an increase in urban violence.
Consider what just happened in Sacramento. Apparently, there was an “altercation” between people after 2:00 a.m. on the street where at least some of the victims had been nightclubbing. Words turned into a brawl that turned into murder.
Now consider how many people who pulled guns were in compliance with California’s “A-rated” laws on “may issue” concealed carry.
Any doubts when they catch the perp(s) we’ll also see criminal records?
Meanwhile, throughout the Republic, tens of millions of peaceable gun owners managed to make it through the night without any altercations whatsoever. And they are the ones who will be affected by any new edicts resulting from aberrant, entitled, and evil behavior.
A warning from John Adams in his speech to the Massachusetts Militia is appropriate here:
“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
Sorry, Mr. Clark, but the truth is, there are just too many damn people who are wholly inadequate to the responsible practice of citizenship. And those are the ones who vote for creatures like Newsom and Steinberg and…
About David Codrea:
David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.