I've read a lot of comments asking for a more strict gun control.
This does not work. Who want to murder someone is not obeying the law and will get the gun on the black market, like what happens with drugs right now... Police can't stop that.
As a comparison, Brazil have one of the more strict gun control in the world and an on the first month of 2019, a single state, Rio de Janeiro, recorded 563 willful killings, killings, bodily injuries followed by death and police killings. That's 563 killings for a single state in a single month where you have crazy strict gun control Nationwide!!!
Here is a question often asked by citizens of other westernized industrialized nations (myself included as a Canadian). Canada and all these other nations simply do not have the death rates by gun that the U.S. does. Why do American citizens buy so many guns of all types just because they are allowed to by your Second Amendment which made sense when it was passed but now is two hundreds years out of date. After all here you are living in the 21st Century where only a very very tiny almost non existent number of your fellow citizens rely on sport hunting as a food source and your safety and security first of all as a nation are protected by as you all proudly say the biggest and the best military in the world and on an individual level each of your citizens is protected by police forces that are quickly becoming almost militarized. We, the citizens of the world (and yes, there is a very big world out here that does not include the USA) just do not get it.
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@J. David Burch
You can't just make a blanket statement without demonstrating the how and why of it. Why do you think it is outdated? The 2nd Amendment, by the way, never had anything to do with hunting food. The police are rarely where needed if someone does need to defend against someone else. There is 1 police officer for every 300 people in my area and, obviously, not all of them are on duty at once.
Please discontinue the practice of announcing the name of the gunman. We are limited in our ability to mitigate future mass shootings since gun legislation will never occur but depriving the gunman of notoriety is a simple and effective step towards deterring “blaze of glory” copycats.
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Will you really feel safer if the only people who own guns in the United States are the police, the National Guard, the Army, and body guards for the rich and powerful? Isn't the message of Black Lives Matter that the police and government can't be trusted? The Founding Fathers were more frightened of government than people. That's why they created checks and balances and a Bill of Rights. To borrow from Winston Churchill, Democracy is the worst form of government known to man, except for all the rest; the right to own a gun is worst idea except the idea that people should not be allowed to own weapons to protect themselves. Once the guns are all registered and taken away, you will never get them back. Be careful what you wish for.
A good start on the mental health issue would be to assume that anyone who wants to buy one of these things (a high capacity, auto-load firearm with a removable magazine) is mentally ill. This would take these things off the street regardless of whatever arcane interpretation of the 2nd amendment one chooses to follow. For myself, I am perfectly happy with my pump shotgun (3 rounds and a plug) and my lever action Winchester, neither of which has a removable magazine.
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I live here in Gilroy, a family environment, where people care for each other and treat each other with respect. We are not citizenperfect, no community is, but this is a great place to live. Shame on politicians that want to use our tragedy to politicize their failed leftist agenda's of gun control. NO ONE can prepare well enough for crazy people that break all the laws to do terrible things. More laws, tighter gun restrictions, and more rhetoric are not going to help. Stop preaching lies. Is hasn't worked in Chicago, New Zealand, Australia, the United States or elsewhere. Deal with the real problems of mental health, homelessness, poverty, double standards of justice for the rich and influential versus the everyday citizen, and treat everyone with dignity and respect. Only then will things begin to get better! In the meantime, condolences and love and support for those less fortunate. God Bless America and it's Good People!
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@David
Except it has worked. Look at the number of shootings. If that's not enough, it helps to remember that the New Zealand gunman decided to carry out his shooting in NZ, and not in Australia, which has stricter gun laws that were enacted after their mass shootings. NZ immediately passed stricter gun laws after the shooting took place.
Now, the "strict" CA gun laws don't work (they are not even that strict.. you could still walk in a store and buy a gun).. These laws can't work on a local level. California is not a country. It cannot prevent people from Nevada from coming over with the guns they got there, under more lax laws. There is no border and no customs to go through. Any law that meaningfully reduces gun violence will have to be nationwide.
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@David
With all due respect for your pain, while there is a place for firearms in our country, this attack, like so many others, was done with a weapon that really has no other purpose than to make quick work of killing multiple persons.
Assault weapons serve no legitimate purpose in a civilian population. They aren’t designed for hunting or for self defense. They are weapons of war.
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@David: In reality though, gun control does lower the rate of violence, this is well known. We should also pay attention to all the things you mention: talk about a leftist agenda! You are mentioning things that are all solidly liberal and left causes. You will find if you are interested in doing anything about them, that all your allies will also be working on promoting gun safety. (Unless you are the kind of Trump/Republican who thinks that the solution to all these is to cut taxes for the rich.)
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This last weekend, starting on July 27, 33 people were wounded by gunfire and five people were homicide victims in Chicago. The only difference between the carnage at the two locations is that the carnage at the Gilroy Garlic Festival is unexpected whereas the carnage on a summer weekend in Chicago is expected.
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@Bikebrains No, those were not the only differences. It should be obvious that there is a huge difference between gun violence during crimes such as theft or gang violence, and the gun violence of a mass shooting.
The causes are different, the nature of the perpetrators is different. And it has nothing at all to do with one's expectations. What is clear however is that you care more for your desire to indulge your personal gun fetish than you do about the loss of life or injury that is statistically connected to gun ownership. You are using the shameful crime statistics of the US (unique to the US among all the developed nations) for your own obvious though still disingenuous purposes.
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The problems aren't guns. The problem is all the loonies out on the street running loose. These people used to be locked up in mental hospitals. But now the philosophy of the medical community is to put them on the street and HOPE they stay on their meds. Guess what, they don't and this is what happens.
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Not to nitpick but isn't the "standard" for determining whether or not a tragedy like this is a so called 'mass shooting" is that there are four fatalities?
Or has the number been lowered?
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@Java Junkie It was a mass "shooting." He rapidly fired multiple bullets with the intent to murder many. Remember, 12 others were wounded but fortunately survived, and law enforcement acted quickly.
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Did the Gilroy Festival murderer vote for Trump???
Did the Gilroy Festival murderer visit White Supremacist websites in his pajamas?
More Americans are murdered by white supremacists, than from Islamists militants.
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@Steven of the Rockies most murders are in fact committed by someone known to the victim(s). It's quite often a spouse or significant other. Violent acts such as this are incredibly rare and are a very unlikely way to die. I'd be more worried about a white supremacist driving like an idiot and running me over.
We do, however, need to push back at white power. MAGA doesn't mean "great" for anyone but the white male, and as he struggles for relevancy, he'll lash out, for sure.
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@Steven of the Rockies I'm no math wiz but I seem to remember 3K fatalities due to Islamic militants on one day alone back a few years ago. Also some crazy person's political leanings are not the same as being part of a political organisation . Lots of self radicalized people of both sides. (Pulse, San Bernardino, etc.) the commonality is they were nutters, not politics.
Gilroy Garlic Festival gunman referred to 'Might is Right' manifesto before shooting - NBC
GILROY, Calif. — The gunman who killed three people and wounded a dozen more at the Gilroy Garlic Festival in Northern California was an angry 19-year-old who had recently waded into the world of white supremacy.
Santino William Legan, who was shot dead by police Sunday before he could do more damage, posted online about an 1890 racist manifesto, “Might is Right or The Survival of the Fittest.”
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I have a great idea. how about california make its own laws governing its own state and let other states make their own laws governing theirs. instead of california trying to dictate what kind of ban on guns needs to happen across the country.
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@zrcalo This is what happens when neighboring states have divergent laws. The gun was purchased legally in Nevada, then brought into California. There is no reason any plain citizen needs an assault weapon. What's going on in those states that sell such lethal firearms to anyone who asks?
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When people say we need gun control or stronger laws, I always ask myself how stronger laws could have stopped this spree killing. California already has some of the most restrictive gun control in America. Why California and not Utah, Idaho, or Wyoming where gun control is very lenient?
The students at a Colorado High School started a chant when gun control activists tried to hijack a school meeting the day many students were shot there. They chanted mental health. In almost every case it is found that the shooter exhibited signs of an individual with pretty serious problems, and no one ever does anything. What about free and universal mental health care, immediately?
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@somsai Part of the issue of gun control is vetting people who want to buy one including screening for mental health.
Unless and until we can make these practices a normal part of the vetting process on the Federal level, individual states don’t have a lot of control over who gets guns and what kind of guns they are.
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@somsai The gun was purchased in Nevada. Can you tell me why an ordinary citizen needs an assault gun?
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@Brian
It was a medium caliber rifle
"Assault Rifles" are fully automatic weapons and are illegal to purchase new after 1986.
All Firearms regardless of the type of action* they use are capable of killing or severely injuring.
*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_(firearms)
"There's strong support for more controls."
And this is why I like living in California. With a supermajority of Democrats in Sacramento, we take action to solve big problems.
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It is unbearable. What have we become as a nation?
It is more than ironic it is chilling that we are so focused on a border wall to keep out people fleeing for their lives and in our own back yard we erect fences to keep out the deranged Americans who are bent on killing us point blank.
What is wrong with this picture?
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Why has the shooter’s name not yet been released? Perhaps if it were someone could recall hearing or seeing something that would be germane to this case and the identity of the second person, who authorities have mentioned might be involved.
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@Vanessa
Santino William Legan, 19
CNN is reporting a link to white supremacist material.
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@Vanessa His name is in the article.
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Freedoms just another word, for murdered Children.
Thanks, NRA/GOP Party.
VOTE them ALL out.
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Have the thoughts and prayers arrived yet from GOP politicians? We expect no less . . . and no more.
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Vice President Biden had pushed tough gun regulation through Congress and into Law in 1994. We need someone in the White House who will bring a Democratic Majority to both houses in order to get a desired gun law. My heart goes out to the family and friends of those who were victims of this shooting.
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@Joe Barnett
Even Dianne Feinstein admitted the AWB didn't work
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What's with the random picture from "The Long Farewell"?
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Not even a front page story! The NYT should be ashamed. We know Trump is a racist, he is also an avid gun rights supporter.
The real story is that gun violence does not warrant extensive coverage. The shooting at Gilroy is yet another outrage that will soon be forgotten amid multiple tweets from the White house, Why no coverage of the two other mass shootings yesterday?
The NYT and other major outlines should put each and every mass shooting on the front page, 280 mass shootings this year, 1059 wounded, 296 dead and counting!
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It seems like the photo of Awkwafina and Zhao Shuzhen is unrelated to the story about the Garlic Festival Shooting.
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