There are two things that progressives really seem to love beyond a reasonable degree: Gun control and mass transit.
Now, mass transit makes some sense. It allows poor people to get around large cities easily, reduces the dependence on cars for urban dwellers, and theoretically reduces carbon emissions. It does some of that to some degree, I suppose, but then we have gun control that doesn't work. Combine the two and you've got California.
In fact, it seems that despite the plethora of gun control laws on the books in California which tend to make it virtually impossible for law-abiding folks to carry guns anymore, it's not doing much of anything to reduce crime. It's so bad, in fact, activists are asking for state law enforcement's help.
BART statistics indicate that crime rates that rose over the last decade and spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic have been improving this year. But on Nov. 2, a man attacked a 54-year-old woman from behind, slashing her neck, face and mouth as their BART train approached San Francisco’s 24th Street/Mission station. A man with a lengthy criminal record was arrested the next day at Oakland’s Fruitvale station and charged with attempted murder.
And on Wednesday, a man died of an apparent stabbing outside San Francisco’s Embarcadero BART station on Market Street. It was unclear where that deadly encounter originated. But later that day, the Bay Area Council, a business-sponsored, public-policy advocacy group, and a coalition of Asian American-Pacific Islander groups demanded that Gov. Gavin Newsom deploy state troopers “across the BART system to address pervasive violence on trains and in stations.”
“There must be zero tolerance for crime on BART,” said Jim Wunderman, president and CEO of the Bay Area Council.
“We need to take strong, decisive and immediate action that violent and other crime will not be tolerated on BART, particularly crime targeting Asian Americans, women, seniors and other vulnerable communities,” Wunderman said. “We know large numbers of riders are staying away from BART largely because of deep concerns about the lack of safety and security they feel on trains and in stations. With bold and immediate action, Governor Newsom can help restore public confidence in the BART system and help bring back riders.”
Now, BART officials say that the stabbing on Wednesday in question had absolutely nothing to do with the mass transit system, but they'd welcome Gov. Gavin Newsom deploying state cops anyway.
Sure. The stabbing was right outside the station rather than across the threshold, but it had nothing to do with a mass transit system that's basically being torn apart by violent crime.
Whatever.
Either way, it's a clear indicator that gun control sure isn't doing what advocates claim it's doing.
The thing is that when people are forcibly disarmed by the law, the criminals aren't deterred from committing crimes. On the contrary, they're empowered. Guns aren't allowed on BART and the bad guys know it. They prey on people in such environments because they know remarkably few know how to fight back in such a situation.
Gun control doesn't save lives. It costs them, and now people are begging for more police to protect them in a state where just a couple of years ago, the big talk was defunding the cops.