After the recent mass shooting in Sacramento, California, which killed 6 and wounded 12, many politicians and celebrities on the left have been trying to exploit this tragedy to take citizens’ Constitutional rights from them, by calling for more gun control laws. President Joe Biden said, “we must do more than mourn; we must act,” as he called on Congress to "urgently" take action on a series of gun control proposals. Sacramento Mayor, Darrell Steinberg echoed his sentiments when he said, “thoughts and prayers are not nearly enough. We must do more as a city, as a state and as a nation."
Sacramento Assemblyman Kevin McCarty said, “we can make our community safer with smart gun laws”. While Golden State Warrior head coach, Steve Kerr, inserted himself into this tragedy, by calling for “common sense gun laws.” Neither exactly defined what “smart gun laws” or “common sense gun laws” are. If you were to ask ten people if they wanted smart, common sense gun laws, all ten would say, “yes”, and all ten would have different ideas of what those laws looked like. New gun control laws will do two things, take guns out of law-abiding citizens hands making them more vulnerable to be victims of violent crimes, and leave the guns in the criminals’ hands making violent crime and shootings much more likely.
How can anyone seriously ask for more laws when we have an administration and many cities who have completely embraced lawlessness? We have completely stopped enforcing our borders laws; not only is this administration encouraging illegal aliens to violate our immigration laws, they are aiding and abetting this massive surge of illegal immigration by giving these illegal aliens money, cell phones, as well as bus rides or plane trips to the interior of our country. Over two million unvetted illegal aliens have crossed our border since Joe Biden’s inauguration. Next month, the Biden Administration is planning on repealing Trump’s Title 42 which is basically opening our southern border to the world which will bring a new wave of lawlessness into our country. Currently, there are 11 states and 180 cities and counties which carry the designation of “sanctuary” which means that they actively protect illegal aliens from federal deportation. When you refuse to enforce immigration laws, you get more illegal immigration and more lawlessness.
Our open southern border is making a mockery of our current drug laws. China, and Mexican drug cartels are allowed to smuggle tons of drugs into our country which kills over 100 thousand Americans every year. In 2021, there was a 4,000 time increase in fentanyl being smuggled into America through our southern border, and our administration is doing nothing to stop it. There is a complete lack of care and desire to stop the scourge of drugs into our country which kills 45 times more people per day than the gunman in Sacramento did last week. We currently have the laws on the books to stop the drug trade, but there is simply a lack of will by our leaders to take the steps necessary to enforce these laws and stop these senseless deaths. When you refuse to enforce drugs laws, you get more drug deaths.
We have far left DAs and prosecutors in our major cities who are refusing to properly apply the laws currently on the books. They are undercharging violent criminals, offering low and no bail, so these violent offenders can be let back on the street to commit more crimes. Throughout Covid, California released thousands of violent offenders, even murderers, back into their communities, many years short of their actual release date, and they wonder why violent crime is on the rise. Just one month prior the shooting in Sacramento, one of the suspects who was in prison for committing violent crimes had been released 6 years early. When there is very little enforcement of crime, we get more criminality, more lawlessness.
This is a trend sweeping most of our country. Quintez Brown, the leftwing activist, who attempted to assassinate Louisville mayoral candidate Craig Greenberg, was released on bail from the county jail less than 48 hours after his assassination attempt. In Yolo County California which encompasses part of Sacramento where the recent shootings took place, 908 new crimes were committed by individuals released on $0 bail in 2021. In October of last year, 21-year-old New York City college student Saiko Koma was shot in the head by a reputed gang member, 17-year-old Steven Mendez, who was out on probation after being arrested for first-degree assault, first-degree robbery, and felony gun possession committed in July 2020.
Throughout 2020, many of our major cities defunded the police, and this decrease in policing drove up the national murder rate by 30%. 12 of our major cities have broken their all-time homicide record, and four of California’s major cities – Los Angeles, Oakland, San Diego, and San Francisco—showed increases in homicides by 17% in 2021. It is difficult to believe that new laws will solve any problem when the judicial system in our major cities are refusing to enforce the laws currently on the books or punish convicted criminals. When you defund the police, you get more crime.
We are living in a lawless country where the laws are applied inconsistently, many times based on political persuasion. Very few of the violent BLM and Antifa rioters were charged with crimes, and many of those who were arrested were let out of jail on low bail, and eventually had all charges dropped. Politicians like Vice President Kamala Harris led bail funds, such as the Minneapolis Freedom Fund which helped to release many of violent offenders, some of whom used their freedom to commit more violent crimes, such as George Howard who committed murder within weeks of being bailed out by the MFF. Meanwhile in our Nation’s Capital, over 50 of the January 6 rioters have been languishing in DC’s jails for over a year, many of whom did not commit a single act of violence.
We have officials in our highest offices who believe that sentencing guidelines of sexual predators are too stringent and must be reduced. Supreme Court nominee, Ketanji Brown-Jackson, repeatedly sentenced child pornographers and pedophiles to prison terms that were as low as 10% of the prosecutor’s recommendation, giving people who exploited and abused children a mere slap on the wrist – 3 months instead of 10 years. Brown-Jackson’s sentences were 35% below the national average for production of child porn, 57% below the average for possession, and 47% below the average for distribution. We have laws on the books to throw child predators in jail, but increasingly we do not have people in our judicial branches of government willing to enforce them.
Those charged with protecting our communities by enforcing our laws, too often take the side of the criminal, and not the victim, believing the erroneous proposition that fewer people in prison means fewer crime, but the exact opposite is true. When you refused to enforce the law and hold criminals accountable with proper sentencing, you encourage and increase criminality and violence. So, smart and common-sense gun laws will do absolutely nothing if we do not have the police and the prosecutors willing to enforce the laws against all criminals regardless of race or political persuasion. But as we have seen recently, these new laws will be used not to keep people safe from violence, they will be used to punish political opponents.
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Judd Garrett is a graduate from Princeton University, and a former NFL player, coach, and executive. He has been a contributor to the website Real Clear Politics. He has recently published his first novel, No Wind.