If you’re predisposed to support gun control, losing someone you care about will most definitely tip you over the edge. If you’re already anti-gun, nothing is going to solidify the position more for you than something like that. Not everyone who loses someone is anti-gun, of course—Ryan Petty and I are but two examples—but it does seem to make those who are anti-gun a lot louder.
Enter Los Angeles, because of course.
An assemblyman in the city is understandably upset after a former staffer was killed at a block party in Compton over the July 4th weekend and is calling for gun control.
Assemblymember Mike A. Gipson (D-Carson) says a deadly Fourth of July weekend shooting in Compton that claimed the life of one of his former staff members underscores the urgent need for stronger gun safety laws at both the state and federal levels.
The shooting was one of several acts of gun violence reported across California over the holiday weekend, renewing debate over firearm regulations and the limits states face in enacting gun control measures.
At a block party in Compton, a gunman opened fire on a crowd, killing Eric Washington, a former California Assembly aide, and Meah Bordenave-Jenkins, while injuring three others.
Tragic, obviously, but Compton has been known to be a rough neck of the woods for decades, and back in the day, it was synonymous with gang culture in the city. I’m not saying that Washington was involved in that sort of thing, because there’s no indication he was, but he didn’t actually have to be. It was a block party. Anyone could come and go.
What I’m saying, though, is that the problems in Compton go beyond anything that gun control could do. After all, this is California. It’s the most restrictive state in the nation when it comes to guns.
But what exactly is Gipson quoted as saying?
Oh, I’m glad you asked.
The Compton tragedy also comes as California and other states continue to navigate legal challenges to their authority to regulate firearms.
A recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in Wolford v. Lopez invalidated portions of a Hawaii law prohibiting people with concealed-carry permits from bringing firearms onto private property that is open to the public without the owner’s consent.
Supporters of the law say it was intended as a “common sense” measure to limit firearms in public spaces, but the Supreme Court ruled that portions of it violated the Second Amendment.
Some advocates worry the ruling could weaken states’ ability to enact gun safety legislation.
Gipson is among those expressing concern.
“Because of the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down protections in Wolford v. Lopez and rule against Hawaii’s common-senselaws, a pattern continues where the U.S. federal government cannot guarantee us the most basic protections,” Gipson told CBM.
Wolford.
He brings up Wolford.
Which didn’t do anything about block parties, mind you, but simply said the state can’t unilaterally change the default assumption on gun rights that it’s forbidden on private property, though business owners could still decide for themselves.
There’s nothing “common sense” about that.
More than that, though, I question Gipson’s sorrow in bringing that particular bit up in the first place.
This had nothing at all to do with what happened on that weekend. It had nothing at all to do with whoever shot Washington, and it would have done nothing to prevent it, even if it had not only been upheld but also worked. This was a block party. It wasn’t inside, which is what Hawaii’s law was concerned with, so why bring it up in the first place?
The only reason I can conceive is that Washington’s death was little more than an excuse to lash out at the Supreme Court, and that is absolutely disgusting.
Maybe there’s another reason for that. I want to be fair, because that’s my nature, but unless the media refused to quote more relevant aspects of his comments–and they’re the anti-gun media, so I don’t see why they wouldn’t—I just can’t see it.
Editor’s Note: The radical Left will stop at nothing to enact their radical gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.
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