By Samuel Strait, Reporter at Large – August 18, 2021

It has not been hard to gauge where Gavin Newsom is on Gun Violence and
Control.  Since his days as San Francisco Mayor, he has been fully
entrenched in the camp of “more” gun control,  As governor of California
he has shepherded a regular parade of gun control measures through
California’s legislature and subsequently signed them into law. 
Statistics seemed to show that this is working as gun violence has
dramatically declined since the 1980’s in California.  But is this the
entire story, or is something else at work?

Californians are for the most part uncomfortable with guns primarily due
to the often well publicized experiences with massed shootings, despite
the fact that these incidents are relatively rare.  Violent crime and
suicide make up a majority of gun related deaths in California.  Mass
shootings represent less than two percent nation wide of gun deaths and
injury.  While the hype is on mass shooting, California legislators have
leaped to the opportunity it affords to pass some of the most
restrictive gun measures in the Country.  Newsom’s administration and
Newsom himself have been very vocal about their part in this long list
of gun regulation that have found their way to Newsom’s desk to be
signed into law.

Something has changed over the past couple of years that has caused some
Californians to rethink their stance on gun control and sales of guns
has jumped by a significant margin.  The change is a combination of
things, unchecked riots in California’s major cities, rise in violent
crime, calls to de fund police, increasing theft, home invasions and a
general unease surrounding government’s ability to protect them if it
becomes necessary.  It can happen, this change in attitude in even the
most gun challenged households.  There continues to be this feeling that
inspite of all of California’s gun control measures that Newsom’s
administration has authored, it does not prevent criminals from
acquiring weapons or gun violence from occuring in the streets. There is
a growing sentiment that Newsom has failed in his duties to keep them
safe and more attention is being paid to self protection with the
purchase of a firearm.

Clearly gun control is and always will be a contentious issue. Some want
less regulation guaranteed by the US Constitution, others wish that guns
were eliminated entirely from society. Those people and Governor Newsom
do not realize that it is not possible to put the rabbit back in the
hat.  Guns have uses, that cannot be denied.  Top down regulation, and
hundreds of new laws will not change the problems that not the guns
present, but the people that wield them.  While Newsom focuses on the
kind of gun and its appearance that is legal in the State, not enough
attention is being paid to the why people use guns to commit mayhem
particularly in our minority communities.  Isolating people like second
class citizens because they own guns does nothing to prevent irrational
acts, suicide, murder, and violent crime. Newsom is great at twenty
second sound bites demanding “gun control” yet solutions have clearly
eluded him.