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Brian Malte, writing for the Times of San Diego, has taken a look across the Golden State and feels that the surge in gun sales in California means impending death.

Approximately 110,000 Californians have purchased a gun since March including an astonishing 47,000 first-time buyers. The nationwide gun-buying surges are fueling increases in fatal and non-fatal firearm-related injuries. Two public health crises have collided — gun violence and a global pandemic. This is cause for massive concern and action. …

Data shows that guns are much more likely to be used against oneself or a family member than an intruder. A gun in the home substantially elevates the risk of intimate partner lethality involving women by 500% and suicide by 300%.  Furthermore, a new study shows that 70% of those who bought a firearm during the COVID-19 pandemic reported having suicidal thoughts throughout their lives, compared to 37% of current gun owners.

Yes, there has been an incredible spike in gun sales, not just in California, but nationwide. Government-mandated lockdowns, mask mandates, and a hurting economy tend to cause trouble. Looting and rioting carried out by people who seemed to be looking for any excuse to rob, maim, and murder just might be a factor, too.

But Malte feels a lot of this disturbing uptick in gun buying has to do with race issues, too.

It is not just about the risks of having more guns in more homes. Since the start of the pandemic, inequities, racial injustice, hate crimes and gun violence have exponentially increased.

What’s the solution? Why, government involvement, of course.

Educate yourself and your family about the risks associated with gun ownership. Think twice about bringing a gun into your home, and if you do, learn how to store and handle the gun safely. It is incumbent on philanthropy, government and community-based organizations to work together to educate communities on the risks associated with gun ownership and double-down on effective and proven community violence intervention strategies.

Strangely, Malte doesn’t mention the number of defensive gun uses on the left coast. The CDC’s own numbers show the number of DGUs vastly outnumber the number of gun deaths each year

Offhand I’d say any government involvement isn’t the greatest plan ever when it comes to doing something about gun violence. However, that isn’t the real issue here. Has anyone noticed that the massive gun sales spike has NOT coincided with a jump in gun-related crimes being committed by law-abiding gun owners?

If I’ve said it once I’ve said it a thousand times: criminals are going to act criminally. Gun violence increases due to gang activity and looting and rioting have nothing to do with the guns being lawfully purchased for self-defense.

Is the gun sales surge responsible for any increase in gun-related incidents in 2020?

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45 COMMENTS

  1. “Malte: California’s Gun Sales Surge Means More Risk, More Death”

    Fixed it for the Leftard.

    Malte: California’s Gun Sales Surge Means More Freedom !

      • The fear mongers who pee on your leg and tell you it’s raining when they warn of dangers of people buying guns do not realize it does not matter if people are killing each other or not. Since Gun Control is rooted in racism and genocide and millions suffered horribly because of Gun Control there can be no compromise whatsoever unless you want to compromise with a Racist and Nazi based agenda…And that defines insanity.

        Criminal misuse of firearms is as illegal as illegal can get. So to Gun Control Zealots…Spit out the Nazi and Racist poo you are chewing on and want everyone else to swallow or stfu while you can.

  2. “Since the start of the pandemic, inequities, racial injustice, hate crimes and gun violence have exponentially increased.”

    That’s why good people are buying guns, @ssh0le.

  3. I hate to say it, but there are a lot of well meaning but scared people who have been buying guns that have little aptitude or respect for firearms. I see them crowding local California ranges taking their new toys out for a spin. Hopefully they will mature into stable responsible gun owners but for now I do have some fear that accidents will increase.

    • Don’t you know that the State government solved that problem by requiring everyone to have a firearms safety certificate and a required safe handling demonstration at the time of sale??? [That reminds me that mine is expired. So another $25 down the government tax hole.] On top of that, it is ILLEGAL to lend your firearms to anyone else. That should solve EVERYTHING, right? /sarc

      • My silly card expired too.

        The new shooters are bad. I let my range pass expire and won’t go back until sanity prevails.

        Law and Order isn’t there. Defund the police scares people (it should).

        • You need to help fix this problem. Invite a new gun user to the range for some instruction. We were all there at one time, many of us were not taught from an early age gun safety.

        • Optimistic Engineer,

          I second rt66paul’s comment to be part of the solution: take newbies to the range and show them the ropes. I have done this for several people and it was always an extremely positive experience — for me and them!

      • Mark,

        My BFSC from the ’90s expired long ago, meaning CADOJ does not see me as being responsible with a gun. Even though I have literally 100+ hrs of professional-led instructional courses (including tactical) on my resume, and have assembled, restored, armored, and fired more guns than probably 90% of our state’s own LEOs.

        Oh yeah…and I’m a firearms instructor as well. But since I haven’t purchased a gun through a CA FFL since the ’90s, I can’t even be trusted with buying ammo.

        Sacramento is off its rocker.

    • So, it’s on us POTG to try to help. If you know a gun noob who just bought their first firearm, invite them to your favorite range. Hell, offer to pay (it ain’t that much). TEACH THEM THE FOUR RULES, but in a POLITE way. Make sure they ‘get’ your attention to gun safety, and take it seriously. Help them find good training classes for more instruction (and, as much as I hate their horrible “lobbying” efforts, and WLP’s addiction to his expense account, the NRA is still arguably the best firearms training organization in the country). We can be the solution.

  4. “…exponentially increased.”

    How to spot an idiot liberal arts major: they use mathematical hyperbole that is flat-out nonsense.

    • Or my second favorite, “by an order of magnitude”. I would predict that 95% of people who use that phrase (and 100% of “journalists” who use it) couldn’t accurately define what that means.

      But they don’t have to – their followers are ignoranuses.

  5. Many(if not most) of these new gun owners were somewhat antigun before they saw what the radical left was doing in the cities. The people are the same as they were, except they now realize that one day, they might have to protect themselves.
    Even those raised in cities now see that depending on LE to save you could be you last act of faith.
    Since these people have been somewhat responsible in their lives, I don’t see them misusing firearms. Maybe those firearms will get misused if they are stolen, but that is up to another person.

    • I can’t help thinking that many of the new gun owners aren’t on our side. Most of the BLM folks you see on TV are twenty something white “kids” with clean records. And they’re dumb enough to shoot.

  6. Yes, I’m sure it has nothing to do with the chill wind blowing through law enforcement, releasing of criminals, and decision of whacky liberal prosecutors to not enforce laws.

  7. Californian’s live are a hell of a lot more risk due to illegal aliens committing crimes of violence, such as Kate Steinle, than law abiding citizens buying firearms yet California democrats would rather make it easier for them and encourage them to come to California, live in sanctuary cities, and be counted for political power purposes while ignoring the collateral damage to citizens.

      • @PMinFl

        Are you sure they voted for it? What I’ve seen lately of the elections process makes me wonder just how long it’s been going on and if its roots are in local government. That is certainly the case in Chicago where the dead have been voting democrat since the early 1900s.

  8. Brian Malte:

    Regarding your concerns over/with gun sales in California, have you considered the following. Might the significant increase in gun sales, these sales going through all required legal channels, be an indicator of the peoples diminished faith in government? Additionally, have you considered the why the diminished faith in government being displayed via the increased purchase of arms by the law abiding populace? Have you considered the foregoing and if not, why not.

  9. I think it is just libtards buying guns to take them off the market, so they can turn them in for ToysRus vouchers. I smell a conspiracy.

  10. 110,000 people buying an gun in a state with 39,000,000 people is LESS THAN 3% of the total population. NOT exactly a “SURGE”

    • slapshot,

      Actually, I might consider that a surge. Imagine if 3% of the population suddenly purchased hang-gliders. That has never happened before and could very well be a “surge” depending on how you think of it.

  11. Data shows that guns are much more likely to be used against oneself or a family member than an intruder. A gun in the home substantially elevates the risk of intimate partner lethality involving women by 500% and suicide by 300%.

    I always laugh at that statement.

    If an “intimate partner” really wants to murder their “partner”, it is exceedingly easy to accomplish with or without a firearm since those “intimate partners” share the same residence and sleep together. It would be as simple as getting up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom (where the “intimate partner” — soon-to-be murderer — stored a pick-hammer) and returning with the pick-hammer to bash in the “intimate partner” victim’s skull/brain. And if that doesn’t float that soon-to-be-murderer’s boat, the soon-to-be murderer can simply slip some poison into the victim’s food/beverage and wait for the result.

    Similar options are available for the would-be suicidal person. If a suicidal person is determined to end their life, succeeding is as simple as driving your car into the concrete column of a highway overpass at 100 m.p.h. — or tying a substantial rope around your neck and that same highway overpass and jumping over the edge.

    If someone is really concerned about “intimate partner” violence or suicide, the effective solution involves leaving the relationship and/or compassionate mental health intervention, NOT attempting to remove all possible means of damaging/killing a human body.

  12. An increase in car sales and gasoline is causing greater carnage on California highways. No one needs a car that can travel faster than the speed limit. Besides all you have to do is use government regulated mass transit. Private ownership of motor vehicles should be heavily regulated and anyone purchasing one should undergo a background check, mandatory safety training and a waiting period. Purchase of vehicles should also be restricted to one every ten years. Malte, did that sound stupid? So did what you said.

    • As nutty as that sounds, there are people that would agree with that. They’re coming for the internal combustion engine as well.

  13. If guns were actually unusually dangerous for gun owning householders, there would be HUGE, presumably in the millions, of gun owning family members getting shot. There’s nothing remotely resembling that, and never has been. Any novice at statistics can just look around his neighborhood and know that.
    I suspect the increased danger, risk, and shootings may well occur, but those increases will all be among criminals, which is as it should be.

    • All they need do is keep preaching – no action necessary. It’s the chaos the rallying inspires that career democrats find most valuable, for it provides distraction / diversion and a quantifiable “cause” for them to champion. The “cause” affords target narcissists their much-wanted “victimhood” statuses and creates somewhat of a “messianic” role for career democrats to assume so to “save” those wannabe “victims” and this buys votes of all kinds.

  14. “inequities”

    They love their buzz words. You used to never hear that word. Now it’s difficult to go a day without hearing it.

    • Racially invidious gun controls rooted in Jim Crow are the very epitome of “inequity”.

      Scratch an anti-gun cultist, find a Klansman… or a Nazi.

  15. Ah yes, the eternal lie of “police (or social worker) protection”.

    Police have no legal duty to protect individuals. Of course I’m not clear on how a social worker would protect you from a guy with a machete, high on bath salts or a guy with a gun screaming “Allahu akhbar!” whether he had a legal duty (he doesn’t) or not.

    If you want to be protected by the police, get arrested. Then they have a LEGAL duty to protect you.

  16. Does anyone consider the possibility that a significant percentage of “new gun buyers” could well be members of BLM, AntiFa, and other left wing groups gearing up for their planned “cleansing” of the undesirable conservatives? They have been calling for a violent revolution for decades.

    Communists always eliminate anyone who they think may oppose their agenda.
    Read history of the 1917 revolution in Russia, the communist take over of China, Cambodia and most all others. Total up the many millions of people they killed in the 20th century. America will be the first in the 21st century when they take full control.

    Be Prepared !

    • Bring it! They forgot the most important step, disarm your intended victims. In 1917 Russian Communists numbered in the hundreds, they were successful only because they had all of the guns and none of the scruples, just killed everybody.

  17. I suspect he already knows that he’s a lying POS, but the way to be certain is to watch as he tracks the increases in criminal activity by the people who bought their first gun. I suspect he will broadcast crickets while continuing to threaten armageddon.

  18. I just got back from socal. that 110k number hes boasting is actually a lot higher. 80% lowers are dirt cheap there. you got shops that specialize in them. you just got to drill them yourself. it was one of the most beautiful things I’ve seen. dude had like 30 uppers and assembly line style making kits. Patriots in cali don’t get enough credit imo

  19. Is the “guns; not people; kill people” cry a propaganda campaign or lunatic mutterings borne of propaganda-induced paranoia? This seems to be a matter of both the chicken eating the egg and egg re-encapsulating the chicken. Narcissists’ intellectual scope is local, after all.

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