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Health & Fitness

The NRA Is Not Responsible for Mass Murder

I understand that Richard Martinez is dealing with indescribable grief: his son Chris Martinez, along with five other innocents, was murdered. I cannot imagine the welter of feelings he is experiencing. There is, however, no excuse for his outrageous accusation that the NRA and “craven politicians” are responsible for those deaths. The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, which will never let a tragedy go to waste, promptly joined Mr. Martinez in blaming the NRA. There is, however, only one person responsible for the massacre – the person who stabbed, slashed, rammed with his car, and shot at least 19 innocent people.

The 22-year old murderer had three handguns and at least 41 ten-round magazines, all of which were legally owned and registered in compliance with California law. Unless you have navigated through California's regulatory maze of firearm laws, the significance of this fact is meaningless. The significance is revealed in large part by the Brady Center's ranking of California as the having the “best” gun laws in the nation.

In deciding that California had the best gun laws in the country, the Brady Campaign identified the laws it contends will stop rampages like the one that killed Chris Martinez: (1) background checks; (2) laws that prohibit people with certain misdemeanors from owning guns; (3) laws that prohibit drug addicts from owning guns; (4) laws that prohibit juvenile offenders from owning guns; (5) laws that prevent people with severe mental illnesses from owning guns; (6) laws that strictly regulate dealers; (6) laws that prevent people from buying multiple guns at the same time; (7) laws that require a waiting period between payment and acquisition of a guns; (8) laws that require licensing of gun owners; (9) laws that require registration of guns; (10) laws regulating the purchase of “high-capacity” magazines; (11) laws setting a minimum age for ownership of guns; (12) safe storage laws; (13) laws requiring guns to be safely designed and manufactured; and (14) laws regulating bullets with a diameter of .50 inches or more. California got top marks in all but one of these categories (gun registration).

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The NRA's power in California is virtually non-existent, so the NRA was not able to prevent any of the laws discussed above. In order to purchase his guns, the murderer: (1) had to pass a written test to demonstrate his knowledge of gun safety; (2) had to pass a practical demonstration showing he knew how to handle pistols safely; (3) had to pass a background check; (4) had to register his pistols; (5) could not acquire “high-capacity” magazines; (6) had to be at least 21 years old; (7) had to wait 10 days to purchase each pistol; (8) had to wait 30 days between purchasing each pistol; and (9) could only purchase pistols on California's approved handgun list. Simply put, California is the model state for the Brady Campaign's theory of how to prevent massacres.

So, when we hear that the murderer legally purchased his firearms – these are some of the laws with which the murderer complied. Since the murderer had 3 pistols, that means he planned this massacre for at least 70 days.

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Simply put, despite California being the Brady Campaign's model state for gun control, the murderer was able to act out his revolting fantasies. The NRA had nothing to do with this tragedy.

On the other hand, this tragedy demonstrates – with tragic finality – that the Brady Campaign's model gun laws do not prevent mass violence.  As always, the murderer is the one responsible for the massacre.




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