Monterey Park City Council proposes anti-gun measures

AP Photo/Jae C. Hong

The mass shooting in Monterey Park back in January was an awful start to the new year. Sure, it was a few weeks in, but that isn’t going to matter to anyone in the grand scheme of things.

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For many of us, myself included, the shooting–followed by another in Half Moon Bay, CA–illustrated the absolute futility of gun control laws.

Well, it seems the city council there didn’t get the message. They want to pass more gun control.

In the aftermath of the Star Ballroom Dance Studio tragedy, the Monterey Park City Council is working to support an array of gun reform bills at the local, state and federal levels.

The Council voted unanimously to support Senate Bill 14: Age 21 Act, Senate Bill 25: Assault Weapons Ban of 2023, and California Senate Bill 2, prohibiting a person from carrying a concealed firearm or carrying a loaded firearm in public.

During a March 1 meeting, the Council directed the city manager and city attorney to amend the Monterey Park Municipal Code to reflect L.A. County’s zoning regulations outlining a 1,000-foot buffer zone between firearms dealers and sensitive areas and between firearms dealers and other firearms dealers.

“I think the other council members and I feel a deep responsibility to do anything within our power to prevent that kind of tragedy, not only here at Monterey Park, but wherever we can so other communities don’t have to experience the same thing,” Monterey Park Councilmember Thomas Wong said.

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It’s funny to me that Wong said that, considering literally none of those bills would have really done much of anything to prevent Monterey Park from happening in the first place.

What we see instead is the city council, like so many others, using the shooting as a pretext to advocate for things they were already supportive of but had nothing to do with what took place.

The killer in Monterey Park was over 21, had owned his firearm for some time and ignored California’s restrictions on such weapons, and was carrying a gun unlawfully.

There’s no reason to believe that these bills being law would have done a bloody thing to stop the shooting from taking place. Not a one.

But for those who favor gun control, that never seems to matter. All that matters is that a shooting happened and gun control is supposed to follow. It’s like they think that’s the natural order of things or something, that our rights don’t matter.

To them, they don’t.

However, I hope the Monterey Park City Council is used to disappointment because none of these are going to happen as things currently stand. If they did, though, it still wouldn’t matter. Mass shooters will still kill innocent people.

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Instead, what would happen is these measures would put ordinary people’s lives in danger, to say nothing of being struck down by the courts when the inevitable challenge comes. The Bruen decision was pretty damn clear about what needs to exist prior to a law being considered constitutional, and you’d be hard-pressed to find any of those laws meeting that criteria.

Then again, this is California. What do they care about the Constitution, anyway?

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