Pirate's Cove

According to the Brady Campaign, California is the state with the most gun restrictions. They have 8 laws on “assault weapons” and magazine size. Eleven on background checks. Seven on high risk gun possession. Twelve on buyer regulations. Seven for possession. Eighteen for domestic violence. The Washington Post Editorial Board seems to forget this

Don’t be relieved only five people died in California. Be enraged.

SO INURED has this country become to mass shootings that when another person with a semiautomatic weapon goes on a rampage, we’re conditioned to focus on reactions, rather than root causes. In the case of an incident in Northern California on Tuesday, we feel gratitude that quick action by school officials saved children’s lives, that police acted heroically and that this time only five people were killed. Yet what ought to be foremost is rage at the refusal of lawmakers to take action that might prevent these needless tragedies — and a renewed demand for sensible gun-control regulations, including a ban on assault weapons and comprehensive background checks with better enforcement.

They have all those in California.

The killer was known to authorities. He had been arrested in January and was out on bail on charges that he stabbed a neighbor. There was a restraining order against him. There had been complaints about him firing rounds for days before Tuesday’s events. And there had been a call to police about domestic violence. Family members said he had a history of mental illness and episodes of rage. Yet there he was — a poster child for someone who shouldn’t have guns — wearing a ballistic vest and equipped with at least a semiautomatic rifle and two handguns.

Wait, he had weapons? In California? How’d that happen?

How did that occur? The shooter had been ordered by a court in April to surrender all his firearms. Was there a breakdown in the system? “There must be,” the killer’s sister said, “some gates on people like this from getting guns. This is the same story we’re hearing more and more.” Sadly, though, it is one that has yet to register with Congress.

What is Congress supposed to do, pray tell? He wasn’t supposed to have guns. Do you know what he did, because he couldn’t legally purchase them?

(USA Today) Two of the guns used in the Tehama County mass shooting on Tuesday were homemade, while the other two were not registered to the shooter, officials said.

That’s right, he made two rifles from parts. He obtained the handguns elsewhere. All in violation of California law, not too mention the restraining order on him possessing guns, per California law.

(Newser) The man who killed five people in a shooting rampage in California on Tuesday was banned by court order from owning firearms—and police are being criticized for failing to take action after neighbors in Rancho Tehama Reserve complained that he had been firing hundreds of rounds. At a press conference Wednesday, Tehama County Assistant Sheriff Phil Johnston said Kevin Janson Neal refused to cooperate with investigators, the Sacramento Bee reports. “He was not law enforcement friendly. He would not come to the door,” Johnston said. “You have to understand, we can’t anticipate what people are going to do. We don’t have a crystal ball.” Neal was out on bail after being charged with assault in January.

The systems in place stopped him from having legally purchased firearms. So the whackjob built them/stole them. And then the government failed. What, exactly, is Congress to do about this? What laws not already in place would have stopped this tragic incident? Even a full on ban on guns wouldn’t stop this. Because criminals will criminal.

Crossed at Right Wing News.