“We have tightened our laws but we don’t have closed (states’) borders,” state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco (above) tells the San Francisco Chronicle. “Until Congress acts and addresses what is a national issue in a country awash in guns, we’re going to see these horrific tragedies.” And there’s this . . .
Whatever lessons can be drawn from the gun deaths Wednesday of three victims and the shooter at a UPS warehouse in San Francisco’s Potrero Hill neighborhood, and the wounding of a congressman and two police officers in Virginia, Wiener said, they do not show a need for more guns in the world’s most heavily armed nation.
The majority of the Chronicle’s article — ‘California needs federal help to restrict use of guns, advocate says‘ — is a back-and-forth about California’s draconian gun control laws, presenting the firearms freedom POV from CA gun rights groups.
That said, you can always tell on which side of an issue a mainstream media org sits by the headline, subhead (none need in this case) and, especially, the last quote in the article. To wit:
The statistics say otherwise, countered Ari Freilich, legislative director of the San Francisco-based Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. He said California has reduced its rate of gun homicides by more than 60 percent since 1993, when it began tightening its firearms laws, changing from “one of the most violent states to one of the safest.”
“If it were true that guns everywhere made communities safer, America would be by far the safest country on Earth,” Freilich said. “We have more than one gun per person, and we have by far the largest (incidence) of gun violence.”
As we know, America is one of the safest countries on Earth. Especially if you don’t live in one of the Democrat-run hell-holes where gang bangers are busy racking up firearms-related homicides and injuries.
Anyway, in their desire to reassure nervous anti-gunners in the City by the Bay, the Chronicle lists the new gun control laws afflicting the Golden State.
State gun laws
Recent gun laws enacted by the California Legislature and voters include:
A ban on possession of gun magazines holding more than 10 cartridges, effective July 1.
A ban on sales of guns with “bullet buttons,” which allow owners to reload semi-automatic weapons quickly by pushing a button with a small tool or a bullet to detach an empty magazine.
A requirement that buyers of ammunition undergo background checks, starting in 2019.
A requirement that those convicted of felonies or violent misdemeanors, which make gun ownership illegal, keep records showing they have relinquished their weapons.
A requirement that any gun theft be classified as a felony punishable by up to three years in prison, changing the law that made the theft a misdemeanor if the gun was worth less than $950.
A requirement that ammunition dealers report a loss or theft to police within 48 hours.
Yup, California needs federal intervention — to restore residents’ natural, civil and Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms without government infringement.