For the second time in a week, an older California man of Chinese ancestry committed a “mass shooting,” the second one attacking a group of Chinese and Latino farmworkers. Chunli Zhao, 66, targeted specific individuals at two mushroom farms in Half Moon Bay, murdering five men and two women. He was captured shortly after the assault, and San Mateo County Sheriff Christina Corpus concluded, “All the evidence we have points to this being workplace violence.”

Well, yeah.

This assault followed, in copycat fashion, that of 72-year-old Huu Can Tran, who killed 11 people of Asian ancestry in Monterey Park. Neither of these assailants fit the typical profile of young sociopathic mass murderers, nor do the profiles of the most prolific murderer demographic, mostly black men who kill other black men in mostly Democrat-controlled urban centers nationwide.

Crime researcher Heather Mac Donald notes the inconvenient truth about black assailants: “Dozens of blacks are murdered every day, more than all white and Hispanic murder victims combined, even though blacks are only 13 percent of the nation’s population. Blacks between the ages of ten and twenty-four are muderef at twenty-five times the rate of whites between those same ages. Their assailants are not the police, not other whites, but other blacks.”

Notably, black assailants attack people of Asian descent in grossly disproportionate numbers, which might explain the spike of firearm purchases by people of Asian ancestry.

The fact that neither of the assailants fit Joe Biden’s favored “white supremacist” profile did not stop him from trotting out his familiar call for banning so-called “assault weapons.” This despite the fact that neither of the assailants used rifles in the attacks.

Fact is, rifles of any type and shotguns combined are used in less than 3% of all homicides, but Biden has never let facts get in the way of his political agenda.

Predictably, Biden again used stacked caskets as his political soapbox and victims as political fodder: “For the second time in recent days, California communities are mourning the loss of loved ones in a senseless act of gun violence. … I once again urge both chambers of Congress to act quickly and deliver this Assault Weapons Ban to my desk, and take action to keep American communities, schools, workplaces, and homes safe.”

Yes, “act quickly,” before dullard Demo constituents realize the leftist “gun violence” mantra is a facade to conceal the real issue: Violence is a cultural problem spawned by generations of failed socialist Democrat policies.

For the record, if Biden actually wanted to “take action to keep American communities, schools, workplaces, and homes safe,” he would turn his attention to the illegal drug killing more than five times more Americans each year, than those killed by assailants with illegal firearms. In 2022, there were an estimated 110,000 drug overdoses, mostly fentanyl which is pouring across our open southern border. Fentanyl deaths surged again in 2022, and despite the fact the Biden administration is trying to put a smiley-face on it, almost all of it is being muled into the U.S. by the more than three-million illegal immigrants Biden has invited in. And the fastest growing overdose demographic is infants and toddlers who are exposed to the deadly drug.

In fact, so prevalent is this deadly drug that the antidote naloxone now carried by first responders nationwide is increasingly required to save first responders because of fentanyl cross-contamination when responding to overdose calls or making drug arrests.

California Governor Gavin Newsom, who will likely be the 2024 Demo presidential nominee, piled on: “Gun safety works, we will not back away from the resolve. But we can’t do this alone, and with all due respect, we feel like we are. … I mean, the Second Amendment is becoming a suicide pact.”

“Gun safety works”? Of course, in leftist parlance, “gun safety” means the incremental deconstruction and repeal of the Second Amendment, the “palladium of the liberties of a republic.”

Again, for the record, as political analyst David Harsanyi notes: “California already has ‘universal’ background checks. It has a 10-day waiting period limit for handgun purchases, a microstamping system, a personal safety test, the ability to sue gun manufacturers even if they haven’t broken any law, an age hike on the purchase of certain firearms including rifles from 18 to 21, ‘red flag’ laws that allow police to confiscate guns without due process, a ban on magazines that hold more than 10 rounds, among many other restrictions. Short of letting cops smash down the doors of peaceful gun owners, California has a law for it. And all it’s done is leave its citizens defenseless.”

As for Newsom and California, National Review’s Jim Geraghty asks, “How do you ban something that is already illegal?” Even CNN acknowledged that the weapon used by Huu Can Tran, described as an “assault style pistol,” was illegal, and that “California has some of the strictest gun laws in the country.”

Finally, for context, Democrats fomented the violent “summer of rage” riots in 2020, unleashing a record surge of murder and violent assaults across the nation, and that surge continued into 2021 and 2022 — though murders and mass shootings declined slightly last year. Again, violence is a cultural problem, spawned by generations of failed socialist Democrat policies.

Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis
Pro Deo et Libertate — 1776

Follow Mark Alexander on X/Twitter.

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NOTES:

The First Civil Right is To Keep and Bear Arms. It is, as James Madison’s Supreme Court Justice, Joseph Story, rightly defined it, “the palladium of the liberties of the republic,” the ultimate assurance of all other rights.

What follows are a few key notes that all defenders of American Liberty and its foundational guarantor, the Second Amendment, should be prepared to articulate, in order to refute the rhetorical gun control agenda disinformation propagated by Democrats and their Leftmedia publicists.

While some of this data is based on annual findings, most of that data does not vary significantly year over year.

FOOTNOTE 1: Regarding so-called “gun violence,” there were approximately 19,600 homicides involving firearms in the U.S. in the latest year of record, which you can view state by state. Fortunately, there are indications that homicides may be declining after the significant surge of violence unleashed by Biden and his Democrat agitators in 2020. The 2022 homicide rate was 30% higher than in 2019.

The Demos ubiquitously and falsely label the generational murderous contagion they have seeded as “gun violence,” and they focus exclusively on the infrequent high-profile “mass shootings,” which account for only a tiny fraction of all homicides. More than 99% of murders in the U.S. are not the result of mass attacks. (Notably, guns don’t commit violence, thugs and sociopaths commit violence.) The oft-cited Gun Violence Archive defines a “mass shooting” as any incident that involves a “minimum of four victims shot, either injured or killed.” The vast majority of those violent attacks are the result of drug and gang violence committed in Democrat-controlled urban centers.

In a country and culture that ignores the rising generation of sociopathic murderers — mostly thugs in violent urban centers who are saturated with cultural violence and indoctrinated with mass-media glorification of violence — it is fortunate that the incidence of mass murder is not 10 times higher. Arguably, the only thing keeping that number from being higher is that 125 million Americans are legal and responsible gun owners.

Democrats don’t focus on the vast majority of murders, particularly the epidemic of black-on-black murders on their decaying urban poverty plantations, because they want to avoid the “inconvenient truth” about race and violence, which is the direct result of failed Democrat social programs. In fact, black people (13% of the population), are 12 times more likely to be murdered, per capita, than white people (62% of the population).

That gross racial disparity in murder rates isn’t useful for the gun control narrative Democrats invoke to evoke emotional reaction from mostly wealthy white suburban women, who form the Demos’ largest voter constituency.

FOOTNOTE 2: Regarding so-called “mass shootings,” for the record, murders of multiple people by one assailant are very rare in our nation of 335 million people. Less than 1% of all murders nationwide are classified as “mass shootings” and high-profile attacks, such as the 2017 mass murder in Las Vegas, are extremely rare.

The FBI defines “active shooter incidents” as “one or more individuals actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a populated area.” In 2022, the FBI reported 50 incidents resulting in 313 casualties (100 killed and 213 wounded). That number was up significantly from 2020 when the FBI reported 40 incidents resulting in 164 casualties (38 killed and 126 wounded).

A broader record of “mass shooting” data is maintained by the Associated Press and Northeastern University, which uses the Department of Justice definition of mass public shooting: “A multiple homicide incident in which four or more victims are murdered with firearms.” These numbers fluctuate significantly year over year, and they range between 20 and 40 incidents. But notably, over the last 30 years, the number of black mass assailants is almost as high as the number of white assailants.

Democrats focus on these rare instances of multiple murders because these high-profile tragedies are political fodder to foment fear — most notably when they can toss out their oft-repeated but erroneous claim that “gun violence is the leading cause of death for children.” If by “children” they mean gang and drug-associated murders of those primarily between the ages of 16 and 21, then yes. Democrats are experts at fomenting fear and division.

The fear and angst Demos intentionally propagate are taking a toll on Americans’ mental health. Psychological researcher Dr. Riana Elyse Anderson observes: “Watching it time and time again on your phone or on the headlines can really impact you in ways that I don’t think we knew before to be as impactful. It’s so ‘in our face’ all the time and we have access to so much footage, so many pictures, so many videos, so many accounts that we’re ingesting it in ways that’s really unhealthy for us.” The result for many mothers, in particular, is an irrational fear that their children will be shot. That is precisely the fabricated fear Democrats want to perpetuate, especially among their female constituents, in order to advance their gun control agenda.

FOOTNOTE 3: Regarding what Democrats and their Leftmedia propagandists ubiquitously and falsely label “assault weapons,” an actual assault weapon, commonly known as a “machine gun,” is select-fire and can rapidly cycle rounds in fully automatic sequence. Very few select-fire weapons are in civilian hands, and only then subject to stringent licensing requirements.

In fact, civilian firearms in common use, like the AR-15 and other semiautomatic sporting and hunting rifles, are not “assault rifles.”

For much the same reason the Demo/Media talkingheads focus only on rare high-profile “mass shootings” to generate fear and angst, they also call semi-automatic rifles sometimes used in those attacks, “assault weapons.” Predictably, Demos then call for what Hillary Clinton framed decades ago as “common sense gun laws,” inevitably followed by calls for an “assault weapons ban.”

In 1994, Bill Clinton banned the sale of “military-style assault weapons,” but that ban was not renewed 10 years later because it was determined the ban had no effect on crime reduction. According to Rand Research, “We found no qualifying studies showing that bans on the sale of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines decreased any of the eight outcomes we investigated.”

The fact is, rifles and shotguns combined are used in less than 3% of all homicides, but Democrats never let facts get in the way of their “assault weapon ban” political agenda.

Both the Clintons were prolific prevaricators, masterful obfuscators of the truth. And Joe Biden has followed their template, establishing himself as the standard bearer of the “lying dog-faced pony soldier” cavalry.

FOOTNOTE 4: Regarding firearms and violent crime, researcher John Lott reports, “Over 92% of violent crimes in America do not involve firearms.” Again, the only thing keeping that number from being much higher is that 125 million Americans are legal and responsible gun owners.

FOOTNOTE 5: Regarding firearms and suicide, almost 60% of all deaths involving firearms are suicide, most also involving drug or alcohol abuse. But the big numbers promoted in “gun violence” reports do not distinguish between murder and suicide, thus implying that homicide rates are much higher. And does this mean that Demo support for assisted suicide is in conflict with their support for gun control?

FOOTNOTE 6: Regarding alcohol versus firearm deaths, if Democrats are serious about protecting Americans, they should outlaw alcohol. Alcohol abuse is far more deadly than firearm abuse. More than 178,000 people died from alcohol abuse last year — that’s NINE times the number of homicides associated with firearms. Drunk drivers are responsible for 37 deaths per day. And notably, it is estimated that alcohol is a key factor in at least 30% of homicides where the assailant uses a firearm. (Include drug dealing or use as a factor and that number jumps to about 60%.)

Of course, the vast majority of alcohol users possess and use it legally and responsibly. Likewise, the vast majority of firearm owners possess and use them legally and responsibly. Enacting a prohibition on firearms is tantamount to enacting a prohibition on alcohol. In both cases, only law-abiding users obey the laws.

BOTTOM LINE: Let me restate this point — only law-abiding citizens abide by the law. Only outlaws perpetrate acts of violence. Making good people helpless won’t make bad people harmless.

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