normal.
Geoff: Amna, thank you.
This is the second mass shooting
in California and just under a
week.
Let's focus on the gun laws in
that state and the challenges of
stopping shootings given the
wide availability of guns.
I spoke earlier today with Adam
Winkler, a professor at the UCLA
school of law, where he focuses
on constitutional law and gun
policy.
Adam Winkler, welcome to the
newshour.
Adam: Thank you for having me.
Geoff: California has some of
the strictest gun control laws
in the country.
Studies show they are effective
they are apparently not enough
in a country where gun ownership
is considered a constitutional
right.
Adam: It is true that
California's gun laws do work.
We have the lowest firearms
mortality rate in the nation in
California, far lower than the
national average.
However, we should recognize
that California has restrictive
gun laws only compared to other
American states.
Compared to the western
industrialized world, for
instance, California has some of
the loosest and must permissive
laws in the world.
So California's gun laws try to
reduce gun violence but it is
still very easy for pretty much
anyone to get their hands on a
firearm in California.
Geoff: What are some of the
biggest concerns about those gun
safety laws?
Especially when you consider the
supreme court has made it harder
to defend gun safety laws
against a second amendment
challenge?
Adam: I think one of the things
that is most concerning for
California lawmakers is whether
the gun laws they pass, today or
in the past, are actually going
to be constitutionally
permissible.
The supreme court this past June
strengthened second amendment
protections, has made it much
harder for states to defend gun
laws.
Many of California's most
aggressive efforts to regulate
guns and provide for gun safety
reform are likely to be called
into question in the courts in
the coming years.
Geoff: In this California case,
the gunman was identified as a
72-year-old man, making him an
outlier in terms of age.
How does that change our
understanding of the threat?
Adam: I think it highlights the
exceptional nature of this
particular case.
Gun violence is traditionally a
young man's game, and I use both
young and man purposefully,
because it is usually men and it
is usually young men who engage
in gun violence.
Part of the brain is not fully
developed until about the age of
30, and it is hard for younger
men to necessarily control their
impulses and engage in a kind of
cost-benefit analysis that gun
violence usually discourages
when we have a society that has
decided to become heavily armed
like American society, even in
California, provides anyone at
any age with the means to do
incredible violence to other
people.
Geoff: Let's talk more about
that.
Authorities right now are
working to learn more about the
shooter's motive as they piece
together a full picture of what
transpired.
I know you believe that when it
comes to mass shootings, the
means matter sometimes more than
the motive.
Tell me about that.
Adam: It is always going to be
difficult to control people's
motives.
We don't know what the motive
was in this particular case.
I've seen rumors there was a
domestic dispute involved.
We can't stop people from
getting angry.
What we can do is make it a
little harder for that person to
get their hands on a firearm
while they are in that
passionate state.
Universal background checks,
waiting periods can help.
But we needed to not just think
about regulating guns but also
efforts to enforce the current
gun laws we have by having
community intervention programs
to identify those most likely to
commit violence and try to
intercede with those people and
stop them from doing so.
There is a lot we can do but we
cannot stop everybody from
having access to weapons and we
can't stop every bad motive from
resulting in gun violence.
Geoff: Is this best accomplished
at this point?
Adam: California has tried
mightily in recent years to
reduce gun violence and with
some success.
However, it is very difficult
for a gun law to be effective
when a resident of California
can go to Arizona or Nevada and
purchase the exact weapon that
is out load -- outlawed in
California.
Guns easily cross state lines
and really the only way to have
effective American gun safety
reform is to do it at the
federal level.
Unfortunate, American politics
don't seem to be particularly
ripe for such reform.
Geoff: Adam Winkler is a
professor at the UCLA school of
law.
Thank you for your time and
insight.