Feds Charge Man Suspected in San Francisco Shooting

(AP Photo/Brennan Linsley, File)

The state of California has more gun control than any other state in the nation. There are lists of which handguns you can buy, you have to register so-called assault weapons, and you can’t get ammo shipped to your house, just to name a few examples. We’re not even getting into waiting periods, universal background checks, or any of that.

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If the gun control crowd can be believed, then all of that should make violent crime damn near impossible.

Of course, if that were true, then the feds wouldn’t be filing charges against this guy.

Federal prosecutors have filed felony gun possession charges against a man who, according to the criminal complaint, is suspected in an unprovoked downtown attack and shooting that occurred last October.

Alvin Merrite, 47, was charged Feb. 11 with being a felon in possession of a firearm, according to the criminal complaint. He has not yet had a court date and is being held in the San Francisco jail, public records show.

According to the complaint, Merrite was identified through surveillance footage as a man who’d fired at three people within 10 minutes on the night of Oct. 2. None of the victims were struck by gunfire.

Merrite wasn’t allowed to have guns because of two prior federal felony convictions: a 1994 cocaine distribution conviction out of Alabama, and a gun conviction in Houston, in 2013, according to the complaint.

See, if Merrite is indeed the shooter, then we have a problem. Gun control advocates tell us over and over that gun control works, yet Merrite is a convicted felon, meaning he can’t legally purchase a gun anywhere, much less in such a gun-controlled state like California.

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What happened?

Of course, we already have a pretty good idea. Merrite probably either stole the gun from someone or he purchased it from someone via a black-market sale. In other words, he completely bypassed the system that stymies law-abiding citizens in some pathetic attempt to stop someone like Merrite.

It.

Doesn’t.

Work.

How many times do we have to point it out? Gun control just doesn’t work and it never will work. Even crooks in the UK–a gun-controlled island with the only easy access coming from other gun-controlled nations–can get their hands on guns. If they can, what hope does the United States have of keeping our bad guys disarmed?

“We can ban guns,” the anti-gunners tell us, which is why heroin, meth, and cocaine are so freaking hard to get.

“We can make it harder for guns to be purchased,” others might tell us, which is why there’s absolutely no opioid epidemic in this country.

Honestly, this kind of thing should prove once and for all that gun control doesn’t work. Meanwhile, anti-gunners will roll their eyes and pretend their delusions reflect raw reality. That’s what they’ve done for years, despite violent crime increasing during the heyday of gun control, then dropping when more and more anti-gun regulations began to be repealed.

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Their adherence to a failed idea would almost be impressive if good, decent people weren’t being hurt because of it.

 

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