2023 opened with two high-profile shootings, both in anti-gun California. One of those was in Monterey Park.

Of course, the gun control laws there didn’t really prevent the shooting, nor could they. Despite extensive regulation, the killer had a gun and a desire to kill as many people as possible.

People were shaken by what happened, which is certainly understandable.

Now, the city is considering a “buffer zone” for gun sales in response to the shooting.

ecovering from a mass shooting that left 11 dead, the Monterey Park City Council will decide Wednesday, Aug. 2, on whether to adopt an ordinance that would add a “Firearm Protection Zone ” to the city’s municipal code.

If adopted, the ordinance would regulate firearms dealers within the city’s jurisdiction by creating a buffer zone to separate gun dealers from certain “sensitive receptors” such as homes and schools.

“We’re doing everything we can to curb the use of both legal and illegal guns in the city,” Councilmember Thomas Wong said.

…

Because the protection zone means gun sales would be prohibited in “the area within 1,000 feet of a sensitive receptor,” according to Wong, this ordinance would effectively minimize the opportunities for legal gun sales within Monterey Park —  a city largely made up of suburban streets and school zones. Additionally, while it does not close the doors of current retailers, nor prevent others from moving in, if a storefront chooses to make renovations or upgrades that entail filing for city permits, then it would be bound to this ordinance, and risks closure.

In other words, they’re not even pretending that this is about curbing illegal guns or even the criminal use of guns.

Oh no, Monterey Park has decided everyone should be made to pay for the actions of a single individual.

What’s especially stupid is that these “buffer zones” don’t actually do anything.

In this case, Monterey Park wants a 1,000-yard buffer zone. However, what good will that do? People don’t generally buy a gun, then go out into the parking long and start shooting people. That’s not how things go, even if the gun was purchased with the intention of carrying out a mass shooting.

So even with a buffer, no one is safer.

But what it does do, and the reason Monterey Park is doing this, is that it becomes more difficult for gun stores to find locations that meet their requirements. It drives up the cost and hassle of doing business, ultimately putting some gun stores out of business.

That’s the goal here.

Yet that opens up the city to a constitutional problem.

See, people have a right to keep and bear arms. That means they have a right to have access to places that will help them acquire said arms. By working to make that more difficult, by their own admission, really, Monterey Park is infringing on that right.

Which may well cause some problems in court.

The unfortunate flip side is that the courts have long given communities zoning leeway, which is essentially what this is, so it might actually survive a legal challenge. Yet we need to actually see this go to court and be challenged because this kind of stupid shouldn’t be accepted just because a community feels awful over a horrific shooting.

Rights don’t go out the window because someone is sad, for crying out loud.