Rep. Mike Thompson (D-CA) is renewing his efforts for federal passage of the same universal background checks that failed to stop determined attackers in California, Colorado, Washington, and Paris.
The congressman, who represents the 5th district of California, spoke to The Press Democrat about his gun control wishes in between shots at clay pigeons with a .20 gauge over and over shotgun.
Thompson said, “I’m just trying to stop the bad guys from getting guns.” He added, “Over 30 people are killed every day by someone using a gun. Young lives, old lives, mothers, brothers and sisters are killed. Lives just snuffed out. There is mass shooting after mass shooting and nothing gets done. And the American people want something done.”
The “something” Thompson wants done is the federal passage of universal background checks.
Two things to note: First, Thompson does not address where and why gun deaths are occurring each day. He does not mention the unconscionable rate of gun-related attacks in gang-riddled, Democrat-controlled cities like Baltimore, Chicago, Milwaukee, New York City, Philadelphia, Seattle, and St. Louis, among others. Secondly, Thompson puts all his eggs in one basket with universal background checks, all the while ignoring the fact that such checks already exist for most firearms purchases and have failed in CA, CO, WA, and Paris.
Elliot Rodger–the May 2014 Santa Barbara attacker–acquired his pistol despite such a background check. The December 2, 2015, San Bernardino attackers acquired their handguns with such a background check, and the universal check requirement was impotent to prevent them from getting two rifles from a friend. On November 27, Robert Lewis Dear had a gun and allegedly shot and killed three people at a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood, although Colorado has universal background checks. The same thing happened on Halloween Day, when Noah Harpman had guns and allegedly opened fire, also killing three in Colorado Springs.
Washington state has universal background checks, and on February 26 a gunman in Mason County shot and killed four, then killed himself. Paris also has universal background checks, plus gun controls that exceed such checks by adding requirements for medical and mental examinations for gun owners. Yet on November 13, terrorists armed to the teeth were able to gun down 130 innocents. And on January 7 last year, two terrorists armed with rifles shot and killed twelve in an attack on the Charlie Hebdo headquarters in Paris.
Yet Rep. Thompson is pushing universal background checks as a way “to stop the bad guys from getting guns.”
AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.