OPINION:
It didn’t take long for liberals to begin bleating about the need for tougher gun control in the aftermath of the attack at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner.
The man arrested in the assault is a California resident who bought his guns there legally. California has, hands down, the toughest gun laws in the country, including a universal background check, a 10-day waiting period, ammunition regulation, and bans on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.
Other than confiscation, what more is there?
None of this prevented Cole Tomas Allen from getting his guns. Nor would red flag laws have worked. Mr. Allen has no criminal record or history of mental illness, at least no more than the average participant at a “No Kings” rally.
The Democrats’ fixation on gun control is understandable. What else do they have to prove that they are tough on crime? They are anti-cop (“defund the police”) and pro-criminal (cashless bail). They favor an unguarded border. How many rapes and murders were committed by illegal aliens welcomed here by the last administration and protected by sanctuary cities?
Interestingly, the states with the toughest gun control tend to have the highest crime rates. If gun control worked, then New York and California would be as safe as Idaho and New Hampshire.
What accounts for the liberal obsession with firearms? Last year, a refugee from Ukraine was stabbed to death by a career criminal on a commuter rail train in Charlottesville, North Carolina. Besides his 12-gauge shotgun and .38-caliber pistol, Mr. Allen had multiple knives. Should we ban large knives?
Also last year, on a Chicago train, a woman was doused with gasoline and set on fire, again by a man with a lengthy criminal record. What’s the answer? Ban gasoline?
Serious solutions here might include involuntary commitment of those mentally ill individuals who pose a danger to society, ending cashless bail, clearing out homeless encampments, imposing longer sentences for repeat offenders, spending more on law enforcement and ending sanctuary cities.
We have had gun control in this country for more than a century. Literally thousands of federal, state and local laws regulate the possession and use of firearms, but by and large, they don’t work.
The focus should be on controlling the actor, not the instrumentality.
Guns don’t try to break into banquets to shoot presidents and Cabinet members; brainwashed leftists from California do.
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