The US House passed an exhaustive gun control bill Wednesday in response to the recent school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, which left 19 children and two adults dead. The House bill aims to raise the minimum age to purchase an assault rifle in the US from 18 to 21, bar the sale of “large-capacity magazines,” and institute new rules that dictate proper at-home gun storage. The bill was approved on a 223-204 vote.
Political pundits recognized that the legislation doesn’t stand much of a chance of survival in the Senate, but allows the Democrat lawmakers to fundraise on the bill, and on the deadly shooting.
California Democrats are also on the gun control band wagon, announcing their own package of gun control bills, never letting a crisis go to waste, as the Globe recently reported.
Gun control advocates want to ban guns. They claim they only want to ban “assault rifles,” “high-capacity magazines” and “bump stocks,” and then redefine what these actually are. “Weapons of war,” is the latest iteration, making certain guns sound more dangerous. But this road inevitably leads to a ban on all firearms.
The Globe went directly to a trusted source to dispel some of the drivel, misunderstandings, ignorance and outright lies about guns. We spoke with Sam Paredes, Executive Director of Gun Owners of California, right after he tested in two Public Safety Committee hearings in the California Assembly and Senate Wednesday.
The Globe asked Paredes if any of the bills proposed in Washington DC and/or California would have prevented the recent school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. “Absolutely none of the bills in California or the new ones in Washington DC would have any impact on the Uvalde, Texas school shooting,” Paredes said.
Paredes explained that there are two types of studies on this matter – correlation and causation. Correlation means there is a relationship or pattern between the values of two variables. Causation means that one event causes another event to occur, and can only be determined from an appropriately designed experiment. Paredes said Democrats only talk about the correlations of guns and shootings, because it takes too much work to accurately address the causation. “The Left wants to go with the cheap science,” he added. Yet it is the causation which needs the focus and research in order to properly understand these shootings in an attempt to prevent the next one.
“We predict these tragedies all of the time,” Paredes said, “because it’s really gun control vs. crime control.”
“And the radicals wait for these tragedies to occur, and then fundraise on them – they are almost gleeful,” Paredes said.
“The vast majority of all mass shootings take place in target rich environments – gun free zones,” Paredes said, “where the shooters are willing to commit a gross act of evil, and commit the highest body count they can.”
“Our policy leaders advertise ‘gun free zones’ inviting those people to do what they do.”
Sam Paredes regularly testifies in the California Legislature for and against gun-related legislation. Wednesday he tested against SB 915 by Sen. Dave Min (D-Irvine), which seeks to bans gun shows and firearm sales on state property; other SB 1384 also by Sen. Min, which demands that gun dealers install video surveillance systems at their business sites.
“They lied through their teeth,” Paredes said about Wednesday’s testimony on SB 915. “They baffle us with BS, and put out inaccurate statistics that have no relevance,” he added. “I try to cut through the BS,” he added, but he only had 2 minutes to do it. And because most Democratic members of the Legislature have no idea what they are talking about in their gun legislation, and the media doesn’t research sources or inaccurate stats, they often get away with it.
And that is why Paredes and I spoke. Case in point: “Bullets, the very thing that make guns deadly,” said then-Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner in a hearing in 2013 I reported on. Assembly Bill 48 by Skinner (D-Berkeley), bans the sale of magazine parts kits that can hold more than 10 cartridges, and requires mandatory reporting of law-abiding citizens who purchase more than 3,000 rounds of ammunition within a five-day period. However her bill expanded the definition of “large-capacity magazine” to include disassembled parts even if the parts only “appear” to hold more than 10 rounds. It was really a bill about scary looking guns to the Assemblywoman from Berkeley. gov. Jerry Brown signed AB 48 into law.
Paredes noted that Democrats and their witnesses at the Wednesday hearing claimed that some communities don’t want the gun shows or “gun culture.” Paredes said “It’s a lawful activity on taxpayer funded/owned property.” And in some rural places, Paredes said gun shows are the only way communities have the opportunity to see a wide array of guns and rifles, and can make purchases.
As for SB 1384 to require video cameras inside all gun dealers, cover all transactions and the parking lot (100% of the property) with high-resolution cameras and audio, Paredes said to the committee, “You are trying to curtail a constitutional right by violating other constitutional rights.”
In a recent article titled, “The Reality of ‘Assault Weapons’ is Far Too Boring and Inconvenient for the Media,” the Truth About Guns clears up some of that BS Paredes was talking about over sporting rifles, which Democrats and the media love to call “Assault Rifles.”
“The civilian version of the modern sporting rifle, the AR-15, was introduced in 1956 so it has been with us for over six decades. In addition to its low recoil and plastic stock, the AR platform’s real innovation is its modularity. The AR can be adjusted to fit people of almost any stature in seconds, which is why it’s so popular,” the Truth About Guns said.
“Gun control laws don’t stop criminals from acquiring and using guns. They never have.” But alert gun owners and those licensed to carry do stop horrific crimes.
The US Concealed Carry Association explains the different types of guns:
Rifles:
The definition of “rifle” is a firearm designed to be held with two hands and shouldered for support. Technically speaking, a rifle also has a rifled barrel, which imparts spin on the bullet to help it fly straight and true. Virtually every modern rifle has rifling in the barrel, so we don’t really make this distinction anymore. The federal government, through the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE), extends the classic definition by clarifying that a rifle can only fire one projectile at a time with each press of the trigger.
shotguns
Like rifles, shotguns are two-handed firearms designed to be fired from the shoulder. While there are shotguns that use portions of or have entire rifled barrels, the technical definition provided by the BATFE defines a “shotgun” as having a smooth — not rifled — bore. Also, a shotgun is designed to fire multiple projectiles at once with a single press of the trigger. To be clear, it’s not anything like a machine gun (where projectiles are fired sequentially with a single trigger movement). A shotgun can, but doesn’t always, contain multiple shot pellets in each cartridge or shell. To be legal, a true shotgun in the technical sense cannot have a barrel shorter than 18 inches.
handguns
As the name implies, “handguns” are designed to be fired from a single hand, although modern handgun technique usually recommends two-handed operation for stability unless there are specific reasons to use a single hand. There are two major classifications of handguns: pistols and revolvers.
pistols: A pistol is a handgun that has the chamber integrated as part of the barrel. Ammunition is fed to the chamber from a separate magazine. “The term ‘pistol’ means a weapon originally designed, made and intended to fire a projectile (bullet) from one or more barrels when held in one hand, and having:
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- a chamber(s) as an integral part(s) of, or permanently aligned with, the bore(s);
- and a short stock designed to be gripped by one hand at an angle to and extending below the line of the bore(s).”
Common examples of pistols include the Glock, Smith & Wesson M&P and SIG Sauer P320.
revolvers: A revolver is also a handgun, but the chamber is not permanently integrated or in line with the barrel. Instead, cartridges are stored in chambers bored into a cylinder and rotated into alignment with the barrel as needed.
You can read more at USCCA on the types of guns, as well as the types of actions: pump action firearms, semi-automatic firearms, bolt-action firearms, and break-action firearms.
This is the package of gun control bills by California Democrats:
- SB 1327 (Hertzberg) would allow private citizens to sue gun manufacturers, distributors and traders for dealing assault weapons, .50 BMG rifles or ghost guns. The bill is sponsored by Governor Newsom.
- SB 906 (Portantino) would mandate school officials to report perceived threats of a mass shooting to law enforcement and require school districts to disseminate safe gun control storage information.
- SB 915 (Min) bans gun shows and firearm sales on state property.
- SB 1384 (Min) demands that gun dealers install video surveillance systems at their business sites.
- FROM 2571 (Gabriel) outlaws advertising of firearms in manners that attract minors.
- FROM 1594 (Ting) would allow the State Attorney General and individuals to sue gun manufacturers and sellers for harms.
- FROM 1621 (Gipson) would further crack down on sales of ghost guns. Governor Newsom has signaled his full support for this extensive package of gun control legislation.
