Gun rights: Restrictions don’t work

The California mass shooting that cost the lives of a dozen people has immediately brought demands for stricter gun-control laws, but California is a state with very strict gun laws already.

How many of those laws were violated by the murderer? Even the ones he obeyed did not prevent the tragedy. He reportedly purchased the pistol legally. To do that, he had to pass California’s restrictive background check and endure the state’s waiting period. Bars are gun-free zones; the pistol had an extended magazine banned for sale; he was illegally armed and had no carry permit.

It’s time for the proponents of so-called “common-sense gun laws” to drop the charade and admit that what they really want is to ban privately owned firearms. But that troublesome Second Amendment — incorporated to the states via the 14th Amendment by the Second Amendment Foundation’s successful Supreme Court McDonald decision — won’t allow that.