California has some of the most stringent gun laws in the US, including a ban on the type of rifle that a shooter used to kill three and wound 15 at the Gilroy Garlic Festival on Sunday.
The gunman had legally purchased the “assault-type rifle,” in the style of an AK-47, from Nevada on July 9 before carrying it illegally over state lines into California, highlighting what some gun control advocates say is a loophole in the way laws operate, state by state.
The suspect, 19, opened fire in the last hours of the three-day garlic festival, an annual tradition that draws thousands of attendees.
He injured 15 people and killed three — a six-year-old boy, a 13-year-old girl and a man in his 20s — before being shot dead by police, who rushed him within a minute of bullets being heard.
The Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence ranks California first in the nation for having the strongest gun laws.
Last week, a federal judge upheld California’s ban on owning, manufacturing or selling semiautomatic rifles and so-called “bullet buttons,” rifle attachments that allow shooters to reload more quickly.
The state has banned semiautomatic weapons for 20 years. The bullet button was banned in 2016.
Nevada, on the other hand, is ranked 25th in the Giffords Center’s ranking.
Big Mikes Gun and Ammo, the Nevada store where the gunman bought his weapon, said on Facebook that the shooter had bought the rifle off of the store’s Internet page.
“The reach of the California law ends at our border,” California Attorney General Xavier Becerra told the San Francisco Chronicle. “We cannot control what other states do, and that’s what makes it so tough. We may have progressive gun laws, but if other states don’t match us, we have to rely on the ability to catch [the person].”
Several lawmakers have pointed at Sunday’s shooting to once again call for a federal law that would close this cross-state loophole.
“The gun used by the Gilroy shooter was an AK-47-type assault rifle. This weapon is illegal to buy or possess in California, which appears to be why the shooter crossed into Nevada to buy the gun,” US Senator Dianne Feinstein said in a statement. “The assault weapons ban legislation I introduced earlier this year would have prevented that sale from happening. It’s time for Congress to debate this bill and vote on it.”
“This loss cannot be in vain,” US Representative Jackie Speier said on Twitter.
Speier is looking to close the gap as one of 190 members of the US House of Representatives who cosponsored a bill that would ban the import, sale, manufacturing or possession of semiautomatic assault weapons and large-capacity ammunition feeding devices on the federal level.
US Representative Eric Swalwell, who campaigned for next year’s Democratic presidential nomination and was the only one of two dozen candidates to focus his platform primarily on stronger gun control, was another one of the bill’s cosponsors.
US Senator Kamala Harris, who represents California, has also called for a renewal of a federal assault weapons ban. She has said that should she be elected president, she would give Congress 100 days to take legislative action on gun violence, and if lawmakers cannot reach a consensus, she would take executive action.
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