Earlier today, I noted how Chicago saw more murders than in any year since 1996. Of course, Chicago is kind of the poster child for violent crime these days, in part because of the very anti-gun sentiments expressed by lawmakers there and in the state.

Yet as bad as Illinois is about guns, California is worse, and guess who else is hitting highs in murders?

Over 1,400 people have been shot and wounded in Los Angeles during 2021 and nearly 400 have been shot and killed, the Los Angeles Times noted.

The precise figure on homicides is 392 for the year, as of December 29, 2021. The figure of 392 means Los Angeles saw more homicides this year than any year since 2007.

The Times looked back on the first 11 months of 2021 and found surging violence “in neighborhoods such as Watts and adjoining Florence-Firestone, which each had more than 20 killings, and in other cities in the broader L.A. region, including Compton and Long Beach, which each had more than 30.”

Shocking, right?

For the record, those neighborhoods topping the list of violent neighborhoods? Yeah, those should look familiar since they’re usually the neighborhoods topping such lists.

After all, these are typically the places with the most gang activity.

Not unlike Chicago, really.

See, the problem we have isn’t a gun problem, which lawmakers in Chicago, Los Angeles, and a lot of other major cities try to claim. Guns are, at most, a symptom of the problem. The problem is that you have a violent subculture that has no respect for law and order and thinks the only way to gain respect is at the end of a firearm.

If you want to make your communities safer, you have to address that somehow.

Unfortunately, that’s easier said than done. During the gangland heyday of the 1990s, Los Angeles had some of the worst gang issues in the country. It was a key focal point for a lot of efforts, both legislative and private sector.

Sure, some of it worked, but a lot of it just really didn’t.

Clearly.

Now, despite all those efforts, homicides are surging, and this in the most gun-controlled state in the nation. I mean, we keep hearing how gun control is absolutely essential in combatting this kind of thing, and yet it doesn’t seem to do all that much to help, now does it?

And, in theory, California should have a lot going for it. It’s the largest state economy in the nation and it’s got pretty good weather. Unfortunately, the state’s politics seem to be running a lot of people out of state, but not the gangbangers who are causing problems.

Funny, that.

Anyway, it looks like while Los Angeles isn’t quite as bad as Chicago, it’s still plenty bad enough. And to think that the only reason arrests are likely down for smaller crimes isn’t because fewer crimes are being committed, but because the DA’s office just won’t prosecute them, so why bother?

Got to love California, don’t you?

I mean, I love that there’s a whole continent between my Georgia and them, so there’s that.