
In the wake of the tragic mass shooting in San Bernardino, CA, state governor Jerry Brown spoke out about gun control.
Following a tragic mass shooting event in San Bernardino, CA that left 14 dead, state Governor Jerry Brown spoke out on Saturday about nearby states’ gun laws. According to a report from Fox, Brown blasted Arizona and Nevada for contributing to the flow of guns into the Golden state.
Brown told the Sacramento Bee that Nevada and Arizona acted as a “gigantic back door through which any terrorist can walk.” While in Paris attending this month’s climate talks, Brown took a brief moment to address the issue of violence in his home state.
Brown stated that California has some of the strictest gun laws in the country, but the lax regulation in neighboring states Arizona and Nevada contributed to the flow of firearms into the state across its eastern borders.
Brown called the shooting in San Bernardino last Wednesday an act of terrorism, but federal investigators are still looking into the motives behind the attack.
Arizona Governor Doug Ducey called Browns comments out of line in a response, and pledged that his state would continue to ignore the advice of gun control advocates, calling Brown’s words “incredibly thoughtless and ill-advised.”
Despite Brown’s accusations that Arizona and Nevada are to blame for California’s gun woes, the weapons purchased in the attack by Sayed Riswan Farook and Tashfeen Malik were sold legally by California retailers. Brown delayed his departure for Paris by a day to address the shooting, but has since arrived in Paris to participate in climate talks.
“It’s an important topic, this is an important forum, California has a role to play, and I want to make sure I did that,” Brown said. “At the same time, I don’t minimize the significance of this terrorist attack. It’s a very clear indication that this is a global phenomenon and that people who are committed to this jihadist doctrine are going to be killing people in very unexpected places. So we have to be, as I said, we have to be on guard and we have to do whatever we can do.”
But does this mean passing legislation limiting the sale of certain high-capacity firearms to the public? Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom introduced a bill in October that would strengthen the laws surrounding the sale and possession of high-capacity magazines that can fire at shocking rates. He hoped the law would “set the gold standard for meaningful reforms to stop gun violence.”
Despite massive public support for an effort to curb gun violence through legislation, such measures face strong opposition from groups that claim their second amendment rights would be violated by these kinds of laws. Until any effort is made on the part of elected officials, it doesn’t seem that gun violence has a clear end in sight.
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