The LA Times headline starts with a mention of California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s gun control proposal. It then goes on to note that according to polls, the majority of folks in the state support those measures.

It’s a straightforward statement, one that shouldn’t surprise anyone. After all, this is the most gun-controlled state in the nation.

But I personally think the LA Times missed the story

Gov. Gavin Newsom and Democratic lawmakers are launching a new effort to restrict who can carry concealed loaded guns — and where — as fresh polling data show that California voters have their backs.

Twice as many likely voters think it’s more important to control gun ownership than it is to protect gun rights, according to a survey released Wednesday by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California.

That partially explains why gun control bills are proliferating in the new Legislature — some of them good, some goofy.

Spoiler: None of them are good.

Anyway, moving on…

In the poll, those surveyed were asked what they thought was “more important — protecting the right of Americans to own guns, or controlling gun ownership.”

Likely voters favored gun control overwhelmingly, by 66% to 34%.

Every demographic group agreed strongly except Republicans, 78% of whom favored gun rights. Among Democrats, 87% thought gun control was more important.

Voters in the largely rural Central Valley were more closely divided, opting for gun control by only 51% to 48%. But in urban Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area, a lopsided 74% of voters wanted gun control.

The idea that these folks want gun control isn’t surprising. Again, this is California we’re talking about here. We all kind of know how they feel about firearms there.

But this poll squarely put respondents in the position of picking gun control or the right to keep and bear arms and an overwhelming number basically said, “Screw your rights.”

If you can’t see why that’s a problem, you should seek help.

These are people who legitimately think our rights are actually up for debate. Even those who don’t care about guns in general should be alarmed because if people will think this about the Second Amendment, how long until they start talking about doing this with the First Amendment or the Fourth?

Our rights cannot be permitted to be fodder for debate. They’re enshrined in the Constitution because our Founding Fathers recognized that there could be no debate over such innate, natural rights. Not in California and not literally anywhere else in the nation, either.

The fact that this poll makes it very clear that our rights don’t matter to these people, while not surprising, is still terrifying.

And make no mistake, once you allow rights to be circumvented because of the wishes of others, it’s only a matter of time before that infringement is used to justify still more infringements.

You may not care about guns, but if you care about keeping the rights you do enjoy exercising, you probably need to recognize the problem we’re facing here.

Otherwise, they’ll all go away when the mob decides you shouldn’t have them.