Murder in gun-controlled Los Angeles County is up 95 percent compared to where it was at this same time during 2020.
Fox LA’s Bill Melugin reported that L.A. County Sheriff Alex Villanueva released numbers showing a 95 percent increase in murders, a 40 percent increase in grand theft auto, a 7.8 percent increase in rape, a 12.9 percent increase in aggravated assault, and a 22 percent increase in arson.
Los Angeles County, like all of California, has perhaps the most stringent gun controls in the nation.
In fact, in 2020, Gabby Giffords’ gun control outlet “Giffords” gave California one of the only two “A’s” passed out on a gun control scorecard. (The other state to receive an “A” was New Jersey.)
The state’s gun controls include a red flag law, universal background checks, a 10-day waiting period on firearm purchases, firearm registration requirements, an “assault weapons” ban, a limit on the number of guns a law-abiding citizen can purchase in a month, a “good cause” requirement for concealed carry permit issuance, a ban on K-12 teachers being armed for classroom defense, a ban on campus carry for self-defense, and numerous other controls.
And California has ammunition controls, too. These controls require individuals to undergo a background check to purchase ammunition in a manner similar to the way that one undergoes a background check to buy a firearm.
Moreover, the City of Los Angeles has a gun storage law, which is one more control atop the myriad gun control laws that exist at the state level.
Yet murders are up 95 percent compared to where they were at this same time last year.
Amid this surge in murder, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) suggests that California gun control still works. Following the May 26, 2021, mass shooting in San Jose, he responded to criticism of California’s gun controls by tweeting: “Some people (…meaning the GOP and NRA) like to point to horrific shootings like yesterday’s and say CA’s strict gun laws don’t work. The reality is that is simply not true.”
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.