A recent Supreme Court decision allowing Americans to carry loaded weapons in public has raised the question of what is being done in regards to gun control.
The ruling was followed by an announcement in Los Angeles County no longer requiring residents to explain why they need to be armed when applying for gun permits.
“It's not the question about how many permitted gun holders are out there, it's just the guns that we know that are already in the wrong hands. That crowd, no law applies to them because they’re not paying attention to any law,” Sheriff Alex Villanueva told “Inside the Issues” host Alex Cohen.
In response to Supreme Court ruling on right to carry gun in public, Villanueva stated their operations would be focused on “a shall-issue standard," anticipating 50,000 concealed weapons permits in LA County.
LASD has issued 3,145 permits as of June 29, compared to 155 active permits in mid-2020.
There is nearly one mass shooting every day, with roughly 400 million guns in the U.S. Villanueva emphasized LA County’s focus remains on making sure guns do not go into the wrong hands.
“Of greater concern is there's probably over 10 million guns out there,” he said. “How many of those are in the wrong hands that we don't know of? [Those are the stories of gun violence] that pop up in the news, [and] when we arrest people at the scenes of violent crime.”
LA County confiscates roughly 5,000 guns a year on average, between arresting people, at scenes of crime, or when individuals surrender their firearms either voluntarily or ordered by the state, Villanueva stated.
California is one of the few states with the strictest gun laws in the country.
Gun owners, who are required to show “good cause” to necessitate being armed in public, must prove a credible threat to their safety, and that their job requires them to be armed or another legitimate reason.
However, under the new Supreme Court’s ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Assn. v. Bruen, California’s “good cause” standard is probably unconstitutional.
California state legislators have been scrambling to rewriting California’s gun laws to abide by the Supreme Court’s decision, while still including certain checks for armed individuals in public.
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