In case you didn't know, and I don't know how you couldn't, California is the most restrictive state in the nation when it comes to firearms. They really don't want anyone owning firearms at all, but since they can't actively prevent it across the board, they just pass so many laws that it's likely to discourage many from even bothering.
Which is kind of the point.
But the issue is that the people who need to be discouraged generally aren't, while the folks who just want to protect themselves are the ones impacted.
Prime evidence of this is what we're seeing reported out of Culver City, California.
The mayor of Culver City and school district officials Wednesday are calling for citywide efforts focused on preventing gun and other violence among local youths after a recent high school graduate was shot and killed and violence broke out at a vigil in his honor.
According to school board President Triston Ezidore, a vigil was held Tuesday night at Culver City High School for 2025 graduate and varsity football player Chyler Paton, a 17-year-old who was gunned down in Torrance on June 18.
Ezidore said the vigil drew 200 to 300 people. The mourners gathered on the school’s football field, where Paton played running back, but afterward a fight broke out and shots were fired, he said.
...In response to the killing of Paton and Tuesday night’s violence, a news conference was called Wednesday morning to discuss both incidents and the beginnings of “a coordinated, city-wide effort focused on youth violence prevention and gun violence prevention.”
Culver City Mayor Dan O’Brien, Vide Mayor Freddy Puza, Culver City Unified School Board Superintendent Brian Lucas, Ezidore and other board members were expected to attend, with Police Chief Jason Sims invited as well.
Now, these are kids. They can't lawfully buy a firearm anywhere in the country, but especially the handguns likely used in both shootings. That goes double for California, where they have tons of regulations on the books intending to prevent guns from getting into the wrong hands.
Clearly, those are working great.
No doubt, someone will claim the issue is gun trafficking from less restrictive states, which might be true. It's also illegal to do so, so again, gun laws are doing a bang-up job of keeping guns out of the wrong hands.
This isn't exactly groundbreaking news, though, is it?
Time and time again, we see gun control fail to keep firearms out of the hands of people who shouldn't have them. When it becomes profitable to provide weapons to dangerous people, someone will be happy to provide them. The Law of Supply and Demand doesn't just work in lawful trade. It affects all forms of trade, including illicit gun dealings.
Meanwhile, there are good people in Culver City who see this stuff happen and feel powerless because they don't feel there's a choice. Owning a gun isn't as simple a matter in California as it is throughout much of the rest of the country. The state actively tries to discourage gun ownership and tries to make it as difficult as it can.
But then you still get incidents like this.
The irony of a shooting at a vigil in memory of someone who was shot and killed is darkly amusing for someone with my warped sense of humor, though there's also part of me who understands why Culver City is freaking out. That's never a great sign of having a peaceful community, after all.
Unfortunately, I also doubt they'll look for solutions in the right places, as far too many politicians grasp at surface-level things that make great headlines but don't actually do anything. There's no reason to expect anything different here.
