"Let's be honest, we don't have enough police officers. We have too many criminals living in this city. We have had 45 murders this year ... that's far too high for a city of this size," Penman said.Talking to a local group, Mr. Penman also said, "Go home, lock your doors and load your gun."
"Penman was stating the obvious in what is happening throughout the state," Sam Paredes told us; he's the executive director of Gun Owners of California, a gun rights group. "Law-abiding citizens are buying more guns than ever." He estimated that 1 million guns will be sold in the state this year. "With all the stories and articles about prison realignment," in which state prisoners have been released, or sent to local jails, "people are realizing that their primary means of defense is themselves."
Unfortunately, the Democrats' new two-thirds-plus supermajority in the Legislature may embolden them to go to extremes. Mr. Paredes warned that Democrats will try to pass more gun-control legislation, in particular requiring the registration of ammunition and defining "assault weapons" so narrowly as to include hunting rifles.