Fact Check: Jerry Brown’s False Claim: ‘Terrorist Back Door’ for Guns

Jerry Brown signature (Kevork Djansezian / Getty)
Kevork Djansezian / Getty
AWR Hawkins

On Saturday, California Governor Jerry Brown (D) answered questions about the San Bernardino terror attack by pointing fingers at Arizona and Nevada, although the guns used in the terror attack were purchased legally in California.

Breitbart News previously reported that the two handguns used in attack were legally purchased by attacker Syed Farook, and the two AR-15 rifles were legally purchased by another individual some time ago. The Sacramento Bee reports that these legal purchases took place in California.

Yet according to the Bee, Brown tried to blame terrorism on the pro-Second Amendment laws that exist in states like Arizona and Nevada.

He said, “California has some of the toughest gun control laws of any state. And Nevada and Arizona are wide open, so that’s a gigantic back door through which any terrorist can walk.”

Did Farook and Tashfeen Malik walk through that so-called “gigantic back door?” No.

And Arizona Governor Doug Ducey (R), who says Brown’s comments are completely “out of bounds,” is calling on Brown to retract his claim.

Moreover, Ducey made clear that Arizona will be ignoring any gun law advice Brown has to offer. Ducey said: “Not only will we be ignoring Gov. Brown’s advice, but I call on him to retract his incredibly thoughtless and ill-advised comments.”

Brown is correct in saying California has some of the toughest gun laws in the country. In 2013 the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence gave California a grade of “A-” for having expanded background checks and a slew of other strict gun controls long pursued by Democrats on the national stage.
In fact, the Brady Campaign described expanded background checks as “the first step to keeping guns out of the hands of dangerous people.” But expanded background checks did not work in San Bernardino. Farook passed a background check for his handguns and another individual passed a background check for the rifles.
Even the Associated Press agrees that California’s extreme gun control failed. The guns were purchased in-state and put to heinous use in-state. No other state is to blame. Gun control in general failed and expanded background checks in particular failed.

The dirty little secret is that background checks have been failing to stop high profile attackers for years, yet those dedicated to gun control refuse to see or admit it.

On December 3, Breitbart News reported a list of attackers and alleged attackers who acquired their guns via background checks.

That list included:includes Syed Farook (San Benardino), Chris Harper Mercer (Umpqua Community College), Vester Lee Flangan (Virgina), John Russell Houser  (Lafayette), Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez (Chattanooga), Dylann Roof (Charleston), Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi (Garland), Jared and Amanda Miller (Las Vegas), Elliot Rodger (Santa Barabara), Ivan Lopez (Fort Hood 2014), Darion Marcus Aguilar (Maryland mall), Karl Halverson Pierson (Arapahoe High School), Paul Ciancia (LAX), Andrew John Engeldinger (Minneapolis), Aaron Alexis (DC Navy Yard), Tennis Melvin Maynard (West Virginia), Wade Michael Page (Sikh Temple), James Holmes (Aurora theater), Jared Loughner (Tucson), Nidal Hasan (Fort Hood 2009), Jiverly Wong (Binghamton), Seung-Hui Cho (Virginia Tech), Naveed Haq (Seattle), and Mark Barton (Atlanta).

When people are complying with gun control to obtain their weapons it is simply nonsensical to blame a terror attack on another state.

Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.