Earlier today there was another school shooting, this time at Taft Union High School in Taft, California. Taft is a small community about 25 miles from Bakersfield, CA. I am wondering how that could have happened? How was it possible for a school shooting to have happened anywhere in California? Doesn't California already have some of the strictest gun laws in the country? Isn't California one of the states that already bans assault rifles, high capacity magazines and any firearm near a school that is not locked up in an enclosed container? According to the gun control advocates, those are the laws needed across the country to prevent these types of incidents from happening, right? According to Vice President Biden yesterday, President Obama is so sure of that, he is prepared to issue executive orders to get those types of rules in place immediately, instead of waiting for congress to act. For weeks we have listened to the outcries for more gun laws from people who do not agree with the constitutional intent of the second amendment or who want to ban all guns, for all citizens. Or we've heard from people who are not even American telling us how wrong our system is.
Today was clear proof of the absurdity of those claims. Today we saw first hand how inadequate written laws are at actually protecting people. I've said it before, I'll say it again. Only a good person with a gun can defeat a bad guy with a gun. Still, we are faced with ideologues who do not care if their views are wrong, or worse, dangerous.
First, let me go over some of the gun laws in place in California right now. I got these from looking on the available California State Government websites. You can do the same very easily.
I will start with handguns.:
A handgun safety certificate is required, obtained by written test, for all handgun purchases. All handguns must be included on a statewide list of handguns for sale, before they can be sold. If open carry, handguns must be unloaded except by special permit. Concealed permits are at the sole discretion of local authorities and in many instances very difficult, if not impossible, to obtain. In gun free zones, all weapons must be unloaded and locked in a fully enclosed container such as the trunk of a car. All schools and up to a 1000 feet from them, are considered gun free zones in California.
As for long guns:
All semi-automatic weapons which are deemed assault type by the state are prohibited from being sold, possessed or carried in California. These include all AR-15's and Ak7's to name a few. Shotguns can only be carried or transported if there are no shells chambered or ready to be fired. All magazines capable of holding more than ten rounds are prohibited.
All sales of any weapons require a ten day waiting period and must be recorded by the state. Private sales must be done through a dealer. On and on it goes.
So, again I ask, how could there have been a school shooting in California today? First of all, the shooter was 16. Although it was not technically illegal for him to possess the shotgun used, it is illegal in CA to sell or give a firearm to anyone under 18 for anything other than lawful purposes, so someone violated that law, or he stole it, which is a violation of another law. Second, he was in a "gun free zone", with a loaded weapon, another clear violation. Third, he used the weapon to try to kill people. I am pretty confident there are plenty of laws against that activity, even in California. I am also pretty sure I could come up with many more California laws broken by this shooter, if you really needed more examples.
Until there is honesty from the gun controllers of what their real agenda is, we will never be able to agree on these matters. They are being dishonest in their approach and many of us know it. Today's shooting should not be used to get more laws, it should be shown as an example of why more laws will not solve anything.
