PA Bill Number: HB335

Title: In inchoate crimes, further providing for prohibited offensive weapons.

Description: In inchoate crimes, further providing for prohibited offensive weapons. ...

Last Action: Removed from table

Last Action Date: May 1, 2024

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San Francisco pier slaying: Another gun control failure? :: 07/06/2015

While yesterday’s big news about the slaying of a woman on a San Francisco pier Wednesday involved the illegal immigration history of suspect Francisco Sanchez, at some point the conversation should focus on how a man with a reported "rap sheet with seven felonies" allegedly got his hands on a firearm in a state with mandatory background checks on all transfers.

The short answer: It’s yet another failure of gun control laws that were pushed with the intimation — gun prohibitionists have wised up enough to never outright promise that their restriction schemes will actually accomplish something — that such crimes would be prevented. Nowadays, these schemes are peddled on the grounds that they will “help reduce gun violence.”

Sanchez, according to published reports, has been deported at least five times. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that he was on the street after having been released in mid-April. The newspaper said deputies checked with federal authorities to “make sure there was no legal basis to hold him.” With Sanchez' record, how does that explanation pass the smell test? The Chronicle said he has been deported five times.

The Los Angeles Times carried a story Friday that he was on probation “for an unspecified conviction in Texas, according to San Francisco police.” This guy could become a poster child for immigration reform and critics of current immigration policies, not to mention so-called “sanctuary” laws and sanctuary designations that are popular with liberals.

California’s “sanctuary” policies appear to have played a major role in Sanchez’ freedom. California’s restrictive gun laws evidently didn’t play any role at all in preventing him from being armed. He could not legally carry a gun in California without a license, and just try getting one of those in San Francisco. Being a convicted felon, he could not legally even have a gun. With felony convictions on his record, he could not legally buy a gun, nor could he have done that with a record of deportation and being an illegal alien.

But when did a restrictive gun law ever prevent a determined felon from getting his hands on a firearm? Restricting the rights of law-abiding citizens never prevented criminals from doing anything.

Authorities reportedly recovered the gun from the water where it was tossed after the shooting. Sanchez was arrested about a mile away from the scene, and various reports say he claimed to have been shooting at sea lions, which will probably get him in really big trouble with liberals (who support restrictive gun laws but love sanctuary laws), because federal law protects marine mammals. They won't complain about him being here illegally, and they will blame the Second Amendment for the gun, but woe be unto him who tries to harm a pinniped in California.

Before this case gets too far out into the weeds, remember that 31-year-old Kathryn Steinle, a California resident, is dead. She was killed while walking along a pier with her father. She died in a state with some of the toughest gun restrictions in the nation; a nation in which the suspect should not have been in the first place, which suggests that for this guy, breaking the law is a habit.