90 percent of last year's 127 homicides in Oakland were caused by gunfire,
the Oakland Tribune reports. And the city is teeming with them--easy to purchase, easy to steal, and considered a necessity in some neighborhoods of the notoriously crime-heavy city.
Letters to the SF Chronicle about the awful deaths of four OPD officers plead to anyone listening to tighten gun control in Oakland:
Is there anyone too dim to see how assault weapons made this weekend's Oakland police officers' deaths more efficient?
This is no different than Mexican police suffering grievously from
being outgunned by drug gangs, who use assault weapons purchased and
imported from American gun shows.
Pro-gun ideologues casually continue to ignore this reality, but
again this week they have yet more police blood on their hands.
We should all join America's police officers in condemning the
gun-show and assault-weapons loopholes, and helping to reverse
Alice-in-Wonderland policies that wing nuts mislabel "gun rights."
[...]
How long did it take the parolee who murdered four Oakland police
officers to arm himself after he was released? Hours, days, weeks?
This next week we are going to see hand-wringing, crocodile tears,
meetings and lowering of flags to half-staff by our local and state
politicians. We will read articles, letters and editorials full of
impotent outrage and silly accusations (Attorney General Jerry Brown
has already blamed the corrections department for releasing the killer.)
Let Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and our legislators do something
besides spray us with words. Let them attend the funerals of every one
of their constituents murdered by a handgun or other illegal weapon.
Let our politicians return to their districts for every funeral, every
day, every time someone is gunned down.
Let our legislators see up close the deadly results of their
bipartisan refusal to enact an effective gun control law to protect us.
When a tragedy like this occurs, people have a natural urge to lay blame. The justice system, the suspect's parents, ongoing tension with police in Oakland.
But how much of this could have been avoided if Oakland had stricter gun laws in place? Would it matter? Mixon was already a "prohibited person," due to his prior record. It was already illegal for him to own a gun of any kind, not to mention that the weapon used in the killing is already prohibited under the state assault weapon ban. Can any more be done to protect police and the citizenry through gun control laws? Your thoughts in the comments would be greatly appreciated.
[Photo by Heart of Oak]
