California remains one of the hardest states in the nation to procure a firearm — but once again this week, it became the site of a horrific shooting at a public event.
Three people died after a gunman opened fire Sunday at the Gilroy Garlic Festival -- including a 6-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl. It came less than a week after a shooting rampage in the San Fernando Valley left four people dead. California was the scene of five of 27 "mass attacks" perpetrated nationwide last year, according to the Secret Service -- incidents defined as those in which three or more people were harmed.
Still, those who have crafted the state's strict laws — and those charged with enforcing them — say that California's gun control laws are working, just not well enough to prevent every tragedy.
"California is, relatively, one of the safest states in the country. ... Our children are half as likely to be shot to death as children in other states," said Ari Freilich, a staff attorney and California legislative director at the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, who helped write some of the state's most recent gun restrictions.
He acknowledged that those numbers are "no solace to the families that are still suffering and victimized by violence today in this state," but said that gun control laws are making a difference.
"If someone was speeding at 150 miles per hour and hurt a lot of people on the highway, our impulse is not to say that we should get rid of speed limits or that we should stop enforcing highway safety," Freilich said. "We would try to figure out how we can have a more targeted response to keep people safer. I think we should have the same with gun safety."
Dr. Garen Wintemute, director of the Violence Prevention Research Program at UC Davis, agreed, noting that firearm violence in the state has been declining, despite California's growing population.
Freilich said it's hard to quantify the tragedies prevented by the state's gun laws.
"But obviously, our laws have not been able to protect every family — we have to do more," he said.
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra made similar points when talking about the shooting Monday, noting California's laws and his office's work to defend them in court.
