California has many of the most prominent aspects of President Joe Biden’s (D) gun control plan but is, nonetheless, plagued by a steady flow of mass shootings.
In fact, a spate of California mass shootings in 2019 led the Mercury News to ask, “Does gun control work?”
Two of Biden’s chief gun control proposals are universal background checks and an “assault weapons” ban. UC Davis noted that California adopted “comprehensive background check” policies in 1991, and Southern California Public Radio reported that the state’s “Roberti-Roos Assault Weapons Control Act of 1989 became law on January 1, 1990.”
Democrats such as Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) described universal background checks as the “North Star” for gun controllers; the crème de la crème of all gun controls.
Similar talk is heard about “assault weapons” bans, as Democrats employ “weapons of war” phraseology in an effort to convince Americans to give up entire categories of guns.
In both cases–universal background checks and “assault weapons” bans–Americans are promised that the implementation of such controls will keep them safer. These promises flow especially free after a highly publicized mass shooting.
Even now, Everytown for Gun Safety’s Rob Wilcox focuses on the word “safety” when talking about Biden’s intent to secure universal background checks. He told the Hill, “A Biden presidency is the gun lobby’s worst nightmare. But it’s a dream come true for anyone who cares about gun safety in America.”
But what has happened in California, where universal background checks and an “assault weapons” ban have been the law of the land for 30 years?
Here is a short look at just a few of the high profile California shootings during the past decade:
- ABC 7 reported that “seven people were killed and three were wounded when a 43-year-old former student opened fire at Oikos University in Oakland, California,” on April 2, 2012.
- Twenty-two-year-old Elliot Roger “killed six people and wounded 13 in shooting and stabbing attacks in the area near the University of California, Santa Barbara,” on May 23, 2014.
- Breitbart News highlighted that Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik opened fire in a San Bernardino, California, Health Department Christmas party on December 2, 2015, killing 14 people.
- The Associated Press wrote that 39-year-old Kori Ali Muhammad shot and killed three people in downtown Fresno, California, on April 18, 2017.
- ABC 7 noted that 38-year-old Jimmy Lam “opened fire inside a San Francisco package facility, killing three people and injuring several others” on June 14, 2017.
- Twelve people were killed when a gunman opened fire inside the Borderline Bar & Grill, in Thousand Oaks, California, on November 7, 2018.
- Breitbart News covered a shooting that left three killed and 12 injured on July 28, 2019, at the Gilroy, California, Garlic Festival.
- The New York Times reported an October 31, 2019, shooting that left five dead in Orinda, California.
- On November 18, 2019, the Guardian ran a column titled “Ten Dead After California Sees Three Mass Shootings in Four Days.” Those shootings included the Santa Clarita shooting at Saugus High School and the killing of four individuals during a “family party” in Fresno.
The above-listed shootings and various others occurred despite California’s universal background checks and an “assault weapons” ban. Yet Democrats push such checks and such bans as a means to keep Americans safe.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.