The LA Times is reporting that the 19 year old shooter who killed 3, before being killed in a gunfight with the police at the Gilroy Garlic Festival, used a rifle. An illegal rifle to possess in California.
Originally stated to be a WASR-10, a lower cost AK variant, that description has since been updated to “an AK-47 variant” and a few sources have said SKS, which I believe given the sources of “AK variant”. Regardless of final clarity, the rifle was purchased legally in Nevada and then illegally brought to California. The shooter passed his NICS background check.
“That weapon could not be sold in California. That weapon cannot be imported into the state of California,” Becerra said in response to a question about the assault-style rifle used in the shooting.
Becerra added: “There is a very strong likelihood as we develop the evidence that the perpetrator in this particular case violated California law on top of the crimes of homicide and so forth, the crimes that we have that are meant to prevent individuals from carrying out this type of activity.” – via CNN
Pre-crime precognition isn’t a thing so… what’s to be done? California government officials have expressed sentiments along the lines of, ‘can’t defend themselves from the Second Amendment’… implying that constitutionally protected civil rights are to blame.
“I can’t put borders up … in a neighboring state where you can buy this damn stuff legally,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday morning, calling for action from Washington, DC. “I have no problem with the Second Amendment, you have a right to bear arms but not weapons of … mass destruction.”
Of course we should blame Nevada, the gun store there, the US Constitution, the NRA, who else… who else? “The shooter?”, someone would inquire from the back of the room. No, that’s preposterous! It was white supremacist rhetoric and Donald Trump! [/sarcasm]
The 19 year old shooter has been linked to a text, “Might is Right” by Ragnar Redbeard, believed to be Arthur Desmond, a late 19th century British born author, poet, and politician who espoused a dark bend of survivalist, darwinist, ‘kill-or be-killed’, the strong should rule the weak type mentality known as egoist anarchism. The text is also heavily anti-christian.
What’s it all mean?
It means that anti-2A politicians, media types, and groups are going to use the attack to further fuel their base for vaporware “common sense gun safety” legislation. It means the 3 who died and those that were wounded have become political ammo for further regulations in California and across the nation. But mostly it means making something illegal doesn’t stop it. Illegal never has, illegal never will.
Mass violence is not new. It is not unique to the United States. A killer did an illegal thing with an “illegal rifle.” Did that make the situation any better, California? The fact that it was double against the law?
No, it didn’t. But what did, ironically, were the people with guns. The officers who stopped the attack on a defenseless crowd by a lunatic with delusions of grandeur, they made things better. Perhaps most ironic, the shooter proved himself the weak one, by his own espoused ideologic theory he should have been culled.
Wish granted, asshole.
