California’s “red flag” law hasn’t lived up to its promise, George Skelton writes, because people are reluctant to report dangerous gun owners and police often don’t want to confiscate guns.
But we’re in a gun violence epidemic, caused in large part by the COVID-19 pandemic. Gun purchases have increased and so has gun violence. And that’s no coincidence.
“Several studies have linked short-term increases in gun purchasing to subsequent increases in violence,” says Dr. Garen Wintemute, director of the UC Davis Violence Prevention Research Program.
“What’s concerning now is that we’ve purchased guns at far above normal levels for more than a year and we still are. I think we face a very rough time ahead…. Preliminary data suggests the increase in violence has continued in the first months of 2021.”
Jun. 10 A California Democrat isn't giving up on a proposal to tax guns and ammunition that appeared to die in the Legislature last week. Assemblyman Marc Levine, D-San Rafael, said he'll revive the effort on Thursday, a week after it failed to gain enough Democratic votes to clear the Assembly. He said he's hoping a logistical change to Assembly Bill 1223 will buy him time to lobby for it. .