After imposing 15 new anti-gun laws over the past two years, California is seeing lawful firearm sales skyrocket, with statewide gun sales more than tripling between 2003 and 2013, and more than quintupling in Sacramento County between 2001 and 2015, KCRA-TV reports.
Although that surge in lawful firearm sales has been accompanied by a drop in violent crime of almost 21 percent between 2003 and 2013, California still has more than its share of violence.
According to the FBI’s most recent statistics, from 2015, California’s violent crime rate is more than 14 percent higher than the national average—a difference, in a state of 39 million residents, that adds up to nearly 21,000 additional violent crimes per year. Nevertheless, in its annual “grading” of the states, the anti-gun Brady Campaign gives California a grade of “A–” with the minus presumably being because the state hasn’t yet outlawed firearm ownership entirely.
