Democrat California Gov. Gavin Newsom indicated that he is “prepared to sign additional gun control measures making their way through the California Legislature” in the wake of last week’s slaying of a Sacramento police officer, the Los Angeles Times reported, but the suspect in that case may be a walking testament to the failure of gun control.
The newspaper reported separately that suspect Adel Sambrano Ramos “has a criminal court record in Sacramento County dating back to 1995 with convictions for domestic violence, DUI, petty theft and battery.”
He was also subject to a warrant, issued several days before the shooting that left Officer Tara O’Sullivan fatally wounded, for failure to appear in a misdemeanor battery case, the Times detailed.
Meanwhile, several states away, the District Attorney in Johnson County, Kansas will not be filing charges in the June 10 shooting death of a man identified as Deshawn L. Brim, who was killed while allegedly attempting an armed robbery at a cell phone store in Overland Park. District Attorney Steve Howe determined that the shooting was a case of self-defense.
Brim, at the time he died, was on parole, according to the Missouri Department of Corrections website. He had a criminal history that included drug and firearms violations, according to the Shawnee Mission Post.
An account of the alleged attempted robbery in the Kansas City Star said Brim entered the Boost Mobile store brandishing a firearm, demanding goods from the store. When he jumped over the counter, the store manager drew his own gun and fired a shot at virtually point-blank range. Brim died at the scene.
Considering their backgrounds, neither Brim nor Ramos should have had firearms, and according to the Times account, some of the guns found in Ramos’ home were illegal under California law. Yet one man was killed in an alleged armed robbery attempt and the other is an accused cop killer.
And Gov. Newsom, a perennial gun control proponent, thinks that adding more restrictions on law-abiding citizens is somehow going to prevent guns and ammunition from falling into the hands of people who should not have either.
The Los Angeles Times noted that a new law becomes effective July 1 requiring background checks for people buying ammunition. There are also ten bills pending in the Legislature, including one that expands the state’s so-called “red flag” law to allow co-workers, employers and teachers to “petition the courts to remove guns from people determined to be a pubic risk.”
But rights activists are concerned about the law on due process grounds. The National Rifle Association and other groups are also challenging the background check law as a Second Amendment infringement.
The NRA and Second Amendment Foundation are battling a Washington State law that takes full effect July 1, which raises the minimum age for purchasing any semiautomatic rifle to 21. That law, passed by voter initiative last year, also invents a definition for a so-called “semiautomatic assault rifle,” a weapon that firearms owners, including Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich, say doesn’t really exist. The definition essentially applies to every semi-auto rifle ever manufactured.
Gun control laws have failed repeatedly to fulfill their promise of crime prevention. Criminals still get their hands on guns, without background checks or waiting periods, no licensing, mandatory training or registration. Law-abiding citizens, however, are expected to jump through an ever-increasing number of bureaucratic hoops in order to exercise a fundamental right that is supposed to be protected from infringement by the constitution.
