David Harsanyi: Get Ready for Another Cynical, Useless, Gun-Control Push by Democrats

A person who has been convicted of a terrible crime should ask this question first. “What could have been done to stop it?” Gun controllers have suggested unconstitutional and completely ineffective ideas to target people who won’t commit any crime after each mass shooting.

Governor. Gavin Newsom, who was surrounded by armed guards, told CBS News that more federal gun control laws were necessary because of the Second Amendment. “becoming a suicide pact.” He didn’t mention that California had passed all the laws proposed by Washington senators. Giffords, an anti-gun group, gives California an “A” Rated for having the “strongest gun safety laws in the nation and has been a trailblazer for gun safety reform for the past 30 years.”

California already has “universal” Background checks. There is a 10-day wait period for handgun purchases. A microstamping system is also available. Gun manufacturers can be sued even if they don’t break any laws. “red flag” Laws that permit police to seize guns without due process. A ban on magazines containing more than 10 round. California has a law to allow police to seize guns from peaceful gun owners. It has left its citizens defenseless.

On the day of the Monterey Park shootings, President Joe Biden called for a federal law to be passed by Congress. “assault weapons” ban. California has banned assault weapons since 1989. The state passed SB 1327 last year making them even more illegal. From 1989 to today, California’s gun trends mirror the national trend. This is not surprising. Despite Biden’s repeated claims to the contrary, the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban did not change gun violence trends. National homicide rates began to fall before the ban was enacted. When the ban expired in 2004, and the AR-15 became the most popular rifle in the country, gun violence continued to precipitously fall — by 2014, gun homicides were the same as they were in 1963 — until the appearance of COVID.

The shooter at Monterey Park did not use an assault weapon. He used a Cobray M11 9mm semi-automatic gun — “one of the most useless handguns in existence” — which some reporters referred to as an “assault pistol.” It’s a scary looking, if antiquated gun (out of production since 1990) that, in this iteration, fires one cartridge with a single trigger squeeze like almost every other gun owned by civilians — including AR-15s. California already made it illegal to possess the gun. Carrying a gun into a prohibited zone is also illegal. As is murder.

After the killings of Half Moon Bay (66 years old) & Monterey Park (72) Biden demanded that Congress pass legislation to raise minimum purchase age “assault weapons” To 21. Mass shooters can be young men. However, the average mass shooter is 32 years old. Only 1% of those involved in murder committed it using ARs.

Mass shooters are illegally or legally obtained guns before they had any criminal records (or because of a mistake made by the police as in Charleston). The majority of incidents are committed by young men with serious antisocial behaviors. Many, if not all, of these shootings are committed by young men who have displayed serious antisocial behavior. According to the Secret Service, a study on mass shootings between 2008 and 2017 revealed that “100 percent of perpetrators showed concerning behaviors, and in 77 percent of shootings, at least one person — most often a peer — knew about their plan.” It is the best thing that we can do to uphold existing laws.

All of this is not meant to suggest that because certain people don’t follow laws, they are either unnecessary or ineffective. It’s to argue laws that almost exclusively target innocent persons from exercising a constitutional rights and do little to stop criminals are not necessary and useless. The problem with this debate is that Democrats believe that civilian gun ownership is a major problem. They don’t care what gun is being prohibited or what law is passed so long as they are being followed. “done.”

The other side believes that being able to protect themselves, their families, their property and their community from criminality — and, should it descend into tyranny, the government — is a societal good. Gun bans are seen as unconstitutional and autocratic, and also largely impossible to implement. They are right.

David Harsanyi serves as a senior editor for The Federalist. Harsanyi is a national syndicated columnist, author of five books, the most recent being The Federalist. “Eurotrash: Why America Must Reject the Failed Ideas of a Dying Continent.” His work has been featured in National Review, Washington Post Journal, Reason, New York Post, and many other publications. Follow him @davidharsanyi on Twitter.

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