Joe Biden repeated his call for a ban on so-called assault weapons and “high capacity” magazines over the weekend, pointing to the shootings in Louisville and Dadeville, Alabama as his justification for trying to criminalize possession of some of the most commonly-owned firearms in the country.

In a statement on Sunday, Biden criticized Republicans for “stand[ing] alongside the NRA in a race to the bottom on dangerous laws that further erode gun safety,” while failing to acknowledge or mention the inconvenient fact (for him, anyway), that Democrat-controlled states with plenty of gun control laws already in place still have their own issues with criminals getting ahold of guns.

Take this incident out of Albuquerque, New Mexico last week, where an 18-year-old was arrested for trying to sell two loaded handguns at a local school.

According to the criminal complaint, Albuquerque Public Schools Police received a call regarding a student, [Michael] Ramirez, at La Academia De Esperanza attempting to sell a firearm to another student. Ramirez stated to detectives, he had two firearms in the glove box of his car parked on school grounds. However, Ramirez claimed both firearms were not his. Shortly after, police determined one of the firearms held in Ramirez’s possession was reported stolen.

“This individual brought two nine-millimeter weapons on campus with over 30 rounds of ammunition, including hollow points with an extended 30 magazine clip,” Bregman said. “It is every parent’s nightmare to think that a gun could be on campus, and we could have a situation similar to Nashville or Denver just recently.”

“Anyone and everyone who brings a gun onto a school campus will be prosecuted. We’re going to do everything we can to prevent a recurrence of the tragedy we had a year and a half ago with Bennie Hargrove, Washington Middle School,” he added.

New Mexico has “universal background checks”, “red flag” laws, and a new gun storage law signed by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham earlier this year; none of which prevented Ramirez from allegedly getting his hands on two pistols, one of which was stolen.

Or how about this case out of California, where three alleged gang members have been charged in the murder of a five-year-old girl.

Eliyanah Crisostomo was struck by gunfire Saturday while her family was driving to dinner along Interstate 880 near Milpitas. The bullet struck her heart as she sat next to her brother, according to the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office.

The suspects, Humberto Anaya, Kristo Ayala Valderrama and Emmanuel Sarango, are alleged members of the Fremont Sureño gang, prosecutors said. Authorities say the trio believed Eliyanah’s family to be driving a rival gang car. The trio flashed gang symbols and opened fire, targeting the child’s family.

…

After the shooting, their red Honda Accord was discovered in Santa Cruz and they were taken into custody.

Prosecutors said they are also suspects in a separate shooting in Fremont, about 10 miles north of Milpitas, on Saturday where they allegedly fired at a victim but missed striking him.

If California’s vaunted gun laws worked as well as Biden and other anti-gunners claim, then there’s no way these three alleged gang members would have been able to open fire on a car driving down a busy Bay Area freeway. The state not only imposes “universal” background checks and a 10-day waiting period on all gun sales, but for decades has banned the sale of so-called assault weapons and “high capacity” magazines.

The types of bans that Joe Biden is demanding aren’t just unconstitutional, they’re completely ineffective at stopping violent criminals. Instead of imploring Congress for the umpteenth time to pass a gun and magazine ban, Biden and his fellow Democrats should be focused on the actual perpetrators of violence, not the tens of millions of peaceable gun owners lawfully exercising their Second Amendment rights.