Full-Auto Fire at LA Cops in Gavin Newsom’s ‘Nation-Leading’ Gun Safety Utopia

A recent video out of Los Angeles shows a wild gunfight involving LAPD officers. When getting pulled over for suspected DWI, the suspect decided he’d rather commit multiple felonies than go to jail (probably again), and sprays some full-auto fire at the police officers. While the video is interesting all by itself, it’s also yet another example of the abject failure of gun control in the United States.

First, let’s look at the video:

For those who can’t watch the video right now, it’s a pretty simple story. When police attempt to pull the driver over, he initially runs, but then stops. When police get ready to approach him, the bullets start to flyrough t with the suspect shooting full auto through the car’s back window. Some return shots are fired, and then the suspect drives off. Stunned at what just happened and confused about what kind of weapon was used, with one officer bleeding in a cruiser with a damaged radiator, the pursuit ended and other officers took over.

It’s worth watching the whole video to see what it was like for each of them, as you can see some things from one officer’s bodycam and then the other’s.

According to local media, the suspect was later caught and charged with attempted murder of a police officer, assault with a machine gun upon a police officer, shooting at a vehicle, possession of a machine gun, and possession of a firearm by a felon. Neither officer was seriously injured, but one did suffer graze wounds to the head.

What We Can Learn From This

First, a practical aspect. These kinds of ambush attacks happen in the real world. There are many criminals who rely on rapid, overwhelming force to get what they want. Whether they’re robbing you, evading police, or holding up a c-store, there are people in this world who wouldn’t hesitate to kill you and destroy your remains if it benefits them in some way. So, it’s a good idea to keep your head on a swivel and always be ready to take action (whether that’s fleeing or fighting) because you won’t get much of a heads up.

On the policy side of the discussion, we have to remind ourselves that this happened in the gun control utopia of California. The AR-15 the suspect modified to spray lead like this was, of course, illegal. Due to the suspect’s prior felonies, just possessing a firearm was illegal. But, if we look at the charges he was hit with, are we really dumb enough to think that getting an extra 10 years for a possession charge will matter when charges that carry a potential life sentence (attempted murder of a police officer) are already on the plate?

Laws on top of law may deter some tinkerer or target shooter from risking the penalty, but they mean next to nothing to a hardened criminal who repeatedly commits violent felonies. So, the “target audience” for this sort of deterrence doesn’t get reached, while people who weren’t a problem to begin with have to live with a pointless limitation on what they can own.

Also keep in mind that this violated at least two federal laws. A prohibition on possessing an unregistered machine gun and a prohibition on possession by felons did absolutely nothing to deter this guy. Again, the federal laws might stop law-abiding people with something to lose from risking possession of a machine gun, but it doesn’t stop criminals from committing murders or opening fire at cops. Those charges are small potatoes compared to the real crimes committed.

It’s high time we abolish these worthless laws and let good people possess property without government interference.