Since the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, four of the five deadliest mass shootings in the U.S. have been carried out in states with strict gun control laws.
Despite their stated purposes to curb violent acts, records clearly show that these largely unconstitutional measures fall far short of their intentions. The Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence assigns grades to states based on their gun control laws, and the results are telling.
The worst incident since the start of the pandemic was in Uvalde, Texas, where 21 elementary school students were killed by a gunman. Texas, of course, is a state where Second Amendment rights are cherished, and Giffords assigned it an “F” grade for gun laws.
But the next four worst mass shootings all happened in states that received at least a “B” from Giffords for the stringency of their gun control mandates.
Three mass shootings claimed ten lives since the onset of COVID-19, including Saturday’s Monterey Park, California tragedy. The Boulder, Colorado, grocery store shooting killed ten, and the racially-motivated Buffalo, New York, supermarket shooting also killed ten.
Colorado rated a “B” score from Giffords while New York received an “A-.”
California was also the scene of 2021’s Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority incident in which an employee killed nine coworkers before turning the gun on himself.
Authorities are searching for a motive for the gunman who killed 10 people at a California dance studio during Lunar New Year celebrations, slayings that sent a wave of fear through Asian American communities and cast a shadow over festivities nationwide. https://t.co/bxIRGpoNAX
— The Associated Press (@AP) January 23, 2023
The alleged gunman in Saturday’s Monterey Park incident killed himself when he was approached by police on Sunday, law enforcement officials reported. His death came about 12 hours after he attacked a Lunar New Year celebration at a dance hall, killing 10 and injuring another 10.
Officials now report that the suspect attempted to carry out another attack at a separate club just minutes away from the first on Saturday night. A pair of heroic bystanders, however, were able to wrestle his weapon away before more shots could be fired, and he fled.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna identified the suspect as 72-year-old Huu Can Tran.
Undoubtedly this latest violence incident will be followed by calls for more draconian gun control measures. Politicians will grandstand over the “need” to protect the public, conveniently ignoring the fact that areas with the strictest firearms laws on the books suffer some of the worst violence.
Instead, perhaps lawmakers should look to stricter law enforcement, locking up the bad guys, and ensuring that law-abiding citizens are able to fully exercise their precious constitutional freedoms to keep and bear arms and thus defend themselves. That would be a start in the right direction.
