All over the country, the violent crime rate appears to be soaring. Every city of any appreciable size seems to be seeing far more shootings than they have in years. It’s a topic of conversation in most of these communities with everyone saying something has to be done.

However, many of those folks are looking to gun control as a potential solution to their communities’ issued, and that’s probably not a particularly wise idea.

After all, let’s look at the most gun controlled state in the nation, California. They’re having issues there as well.

Three people died and two others were injured Saturday night and early Sunday morning in a string of shootings in three Bay Area cities.

In Oakland, officers and firefighters called to the 9900 block of MacArthur Boulevard at about 1 a.m. Sunday found a woman with at least one gunshot wound, authorities said. The San Francisco resident died at the scene.

About 90 minutes later, officers responded to a shooting on the 8300 block of International Boulevard and found a man who had been shot. Emergency aid was provided, but the victim died at a local hospital, police said.

The area around East Oakland has emerged as the epicenter in a wave of shootings and homicides in a city that has logged more than 80 slayings in 2020, up from 58 at this time last year. Police link the increase to the coronavirus, gang skirmishes and an influx of guns.

Vallejo recorded its 23rd homicide of the year early Sunday. That’s the most slayings the city has seen since it recorded 25 homicides in 2013, according to crime data from the department. Police responded to the 1900 block of Ascot Parkway and found a 28-year-old man with at least one gunshot wound. He died at the scene, police said.

Now, Oakland police can try and lay the blame on the “influx of guns” all they want, but let’s keep a few things in mind about California. For one, they have universal background checks, which are supposed to keep people from skipping NICS checks. Every gun lawfully sold in the state goes through a FFL holder, which means a background check.

While a lot of guns have been sold over the last six months or so, all of them sold lawfully have complied with the law. Further, California has waiting periods and an extremely limited supply of handguns available for sale. They’ve done everything they can think of to throttle the Second Amendment in the state.

Despite all that, or even because of it, violent crime is soaring there just like every other state in the nation.

I’m sorry, but at what point will people in California recognize that violent crime is far more complex than anything that could be solved with a simplistic solution like gun control? Even if you ignore the violation of Californians’ civil liberties, the truth of the matter is that gun control just plain doesn’t work as advertised.

Shocking, I know, but it’s true.

Yet we all know that this is California we’re talking about here. There’s only one solution they’ll entertain when the legislature is in session, and that will be still more gun control.