Category: California
One of the joys of living in California for over 30 years in both the south and the Bay Area was watching demographic change swirl through some of it and revise whole towns overnight as the newcomers swept away the old. Such a case in point was the City of Compton. Almost 100% white into the ’50s with all the usual tricks of a society that wanted to live by itself was completely replaced by blacks in the 60’s and they remained the majority of the population until into the 90s when they were all swept away by the incoming Mexicans and other hispanics with all the violence and turf wars and shootouts that presage big changes in little places.
New York and some of the other Atlantic states are slowly figuring out that what happened so dramatically in Florida could and will happen in their towns as the newcomers from south of the border kick the ever loving crap out of the old denizens and demons that run the drugs, gangs, pimps in places like New York City and either exterminate them or drive them out. Perhaps they’ll head to the suburbs and New Jersey. It’s hard to tell where they’ll end up.
What the current demons don’t really understand is that the Mexicans?
The guys that routinely take on the Mexican Army and own the Mexican police forces from the local level all the way up to the Minister of Justice and Minister of Defense…..those cartels you hear about from time to time if you look for news other than in the mainstream of media foulness, they are the utterly amoral killers and they’re more heavily armed than anybody in the United States and they’re coming here.
They also know that the richest pickings are in places like New York, Delaware, Massachusetts, Connecticut and the other urban hellholes that spawned the gangs, the drugs and the crime that make urban living so darned pleasant for commuters in those places.
When the mayors of towns like NYC bleat about a mere 45,000 illegals dumped on his city by the mayors of Texas and Oklahoma towns and the Federales who answer to literally noone, he aint seen nothing yet. What a pity they shit on their police, defunded their police and voted for socialist progressive liberal BLM types to administer justice in their fair little cities.
In 20 years you will not be able to recognize them. Kind of like Compton.
SF prosecutors decline to charge security guard in fatal Walgreens shooting, cite self-defense
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — The security guard arrested for allegedly shooting and killing a person inside a San Francisco Walgreens last Thursday has been released from jail after prosecutors declined to pursue charges.
According to a statement released by the district attorney’s office Monday, they decided to not file murder charges, at this time, after a review of the evidence gathered by the San Francisco Police Department.
The statement said in part, “The evidence clearly shows that the suspect believed he was in mortal danger and acted in self-defense.”
Michael Earl-Wayne Anthony is accused of fatally shooting 24-year-old Banko Brown during what police are calling a shoplifting incident.
“We cannot bring forward charges when there is credible evidence of reasonable self-defense. Doing so would be unethical and create false hope for a successful prosecution,” the statement said.
On the same day Anthony was released from jail, loved ones of Brown held a rally in San Francisco to demand justice for his death.
“It’s insane that Walgreens has armed security, there’s nothing in that store worth a human life,” Jessica Nowlan, a representative from the Young Women’s Freedom Center said.
Julia Arroyo, co-Executive Director of the Young Women’s Freedom Center said the rally held Monday for Brown was also to demand housing, specifically for Black trans youth.
“Being a Black trans man, it was complicated for him. To be inside of women’s housing or men’s housing. He was constantly being targeted and so he often talked about, ‘where’s my place for a home?'” Arroyo said.
She says Brown was one of their community organizing interns and like many of the people connected with the center, he had been experiencing homelessness since he was just 12 years old.
“He was the next in line to receive his housing, and so they continued to tell him, you just got to call back every morning,” Arroyo said.
But despite sometimes helping others get resources before him through the Young Women’s Freedom Center, that call for permanent housing never came for Brown.
“I know that Banko called tirelessly to all of these places, waited in line for housing and was turned away so many times and I’ve just seen his urgency to get there and, this is the result,” she said. “This is the result and we should all be ashamed of ourselves in San Francisco.”
Police say this shooting was originally called in as a shoplifting incident, though a cousin who was with Brown Thursday evening tells ABC7 they were not shoplifting.
Darren Stallcup, a neighbor who shops here daily, believes shoplifting in San Francisco is part of a much larger problem.
“People who are struggling to make a life for themselves, to build a life for themselves, are having an even more difficult time nowadays,” Darren Stallcup, a San Francisco resident said. “What’s happening right now in San Francisco is an absolute humanitarian crisis, this is not an isolated incident.”
San Francisco Mayor London Breed’s office said they could not comment on the specifics of this case, but released a statement saying Breed announced a goal of ending trans homelessness last year and that the city has created a number of programs to support trans communities including the Our Trans Home SF Coalition, the Taimon Booton Navigation Center, guaranteed income programs and the Dream Keeper Initiative.
“San Francisco strives to be a national leader in supporting trans communities and helping people on the path to housing and stability in a country where too often the basic rights and safety of trans people are under attack,” the Mayor’s Office said.
Hope — and some skepticism — as fentanyl crackdown begins in SF’s Tenderloin
“I’m hopeful something good comes out of this and we can help reclaim this city,” one resident said.
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — Monday marks the start of Governor Gavin Newsom’s major move to crack down on San Francisco’s open-air drug market. California Highway Patrol and the California National Guard are teaming up with the SFPD and District Attorney’s Office to help get drug dealers off the streets.
CHP officers will be targeting the Tenderloin and South of Market neighborhoods, while the California National Guard works behind the scenes analyzing intelligence.
“As we hopefully wind down the drug market, we also have to make sure that we are winding up support for the people who are going to have a harder time finding drugs,” said Supervisor Dorsey.
RELATED: ‘Injecting Hope’ | Watch documentary on innovative program tackling drug overdose, fentanyl epidemic
“If you are going to be eliminating the supply like this, especially with people that do have substance use disorder and if their primary substance is fentanyl. We really need to make sure that we’re able to help these folks and very quickly,” said Gary McCoy of HealthRight 360, one of the nonprofits working with the city in hopes of establishing safe consumption sites.
Safe consumption sites, also known as safe injection, or overdose prevention sites, are places people can go to use their drugs under supervision in case of an overdose – and be connected to services like treatment and housing. The sites are illegal under federal law, but the Mayor’s Office and Board of Supervisors are trying to find workarounds, similar to sites like those in New York City, operated by a nonprofit.
“There are some conversations happening that fingers crossed we’ll make some progress on some of the overdose prevention sites that we’re talking about,” said Supervisor Dorsey.
Driving around the tenderloin on Monday afternoon, it looked pretty much like it does on any other day. There were a few SFPD officers on foot patrol. And we spotted two CHP cars passing through.
But despite no visible difference in the neighborhood, some San Franciscans are hopeful Monday will mark a turning point in San Francisco.
VIDEO: National Guard explains their role in fighting San Francisco’s fentanyl crisis
“I am cautiously optimistic. Let’s put it that way,” Tom Wolf, a recovering fentanyl addict who used to live on the streets of the Tenderloin, told ABC7 News.
Wolf said word has already spread around the community.
“From what I’m hearing from people on the street, is that they’re hunkering down. The people using drugs are hunkering down in anticipation of this increase in law enforcement to kind of ride out the storm,” Wolf said.
“The key is that, when we do this enforcement, it’s going to have to be a sustained approach,” he added. “We can’t just have the CHP come in here for three weeks and then go home. If they’re going to be here, they’re going to have to be here for six months at least.”
CHP said they have 75 uniformed officers in San Francisco, but they won’t say how many officers are being deployed at any given time for this effort.
Supervisor Dean Preston — who represents the Tenderloin and has been critical of Newsom’s plan — said he’s heard it’s going to be about six officers. He is among those skeptical the plan will make much change.
VIDEO: Mixed reaction to Gov. Newsom’s plans to combat San Francisco’s fentanyl crisis
“It’s kind of a big nothing burger in some ways,” Preston said. “I mean, the governor announced military deployment with the National Guard and CHP and all that. In reality, now we find out that the plan appears to be taking six CHP officers who are already stationed here in San Francisco and having them drive around the Tenderloin and SOMA.”
“So, I wish the governor would focus less on these publicity stunts and more on working on us to actually improve the community,” he added.
Wolf, meantime, is just thankful that there’s focus on combating the crisis.
“We definitely need to do something, so adding more law enforcement is a first step in that direction,” he said.
Jury is still out, he said, if that increased police presence will be enough to deter drug dealers.
“I think they’ll believe it if they see it,” Wolf said. “Until then, I think they’re going to keep doing what they’re doing. There’s too much money to be made out here.”
“That’s why I’m saying I’m cautiously optimistic,” he added. “I’m hopeful something good comes out of this and we can help reclaim this city.”
A suspected catalytic converter thief was stabbed to death in a driveway early Friday morning in Los Angeles County, California, CBS News reported.
Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies responded to a house in South El Monte on the 1100 block of Thienes Avenue at 2:37 a.m. and found a man dead at the scene, sheriff’s Lieutenant Michael Gomez said.
“Deputies made contact with the resident of the house, who said he had been sleeping when he heard people outside tampering with his car. He went outside to investigate, where he was confronted by three to four people. An altercation ensued and one man was fatally stabbed,” according to the report.
Investigators said two or three other suspects fled the scene and were last seen driving eastbound on Thienes Avenue. Gomez said tools left at the scene indicate the suspects were attempting to steal catalytic converters.
The deceased suspect, between 35 and 45 years old, was found lying partially underneath a car in the driveway. The weapon used is believed to be a kitchen knife, according to investigators.
Investigators detained and interviewed the resident. Two other people were allegedly inside the house at the time of the incident, officials said.
————————————————————————————— Two things about this comes to my feeble mind. In that Richard Ramirez the serial killer was caught messing with somebodies car. (Don’t ever mess with a car in LA as you WILL inherit the wind of some serious violence)
The other thing is that if the Cops won’t or cannot do their job. Then the neighborhood even here in wimpy LA will!
For those who have never been here. There is a Fast Food Chain called in & Out Burgers. Which has a cult following of which I don’t belong to by the way. Although they do make a decent burger but so so fries. But I digress! So enjoy just another example of why I do so want to get the F**K out of this place.
Grumpy
PS This is near the 6 Flag Magic Mountain Amusement Park where the Plebes go as its a bit cheaper than Disney Land. Go figure!
Of course the The people of LA is another story. Grumpy
Mayor Karen Bass said she wants to boost hiring at the Los Angeles Police Department, which has lost hundreds of officers in the past three years. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)Ten years ago, the Los Angeles Police Department celebrated a historic hiring milestone, announcing the city had reached a target sought by at least two mayors and multiple police chiefs: 10,000 officers.
That achievement was the culmination of an expensive seven-year campaign waged by then-Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, much of it during a global recession that ravaged the city’s finances.
Now, within a three-year span, those gains have been erased. The LAPD is hemorrhaging officers, with more leaving the force than are joining it. Police Chief Michel Moore reported last week that sworn staffing had fallen to 9,103, down nearly 1,000 from 2019, the year that preceded the outbreak of COVID-19.
Mayor Karen Bass is looking to confront the issue head on by ramping up hiring and lifting barriers to recruitment. Her proposed budget, which will be released Tuesday, will call for the city to restore the department to 9,500 officers — an extremely tall order, given the ongoing staff exodus.
“I know that that is ambitious, but I think it needs to happen.” she said.
Bass will release her proposed budget, her first since taking office in December, amid a growing number of departures from the LAPD, not just by those nearing retirement age but also some of the department’s much newer officers.
In an interview, Bass said she fears the accidental release of photographs of LAPD officers, recently provided by the department in response to a public records request, could accelerate the outflow. If the city fails to fix its recruitment and retention problems, the LAPD could easily fall below 9,000 officers in the coming months, Bass said.
The call to rebuild the LAPD will almost certainly generate pushback from groups such as La Defensa, which advocates for alternatives to prisons and policing. Ivette Alé-Ferlito, the group’s executive director, said the city should take advantage of the drop in police staffing, by expanding the number of unarmed specialists who respond to residents experiencing mental health crises or other emergencies — and ensuring those workers are compensated at levels typically reserved for police.
“This is an opportunity to be able to start investments into alternatives to law enforcement responses,” Alé-Ferlito said.
A spokesperson for the Los Angeles Police Protective League, which represents rank-and-file officers, said his group welcomes the mayor’s efforts to “rebuild the LAPD after years of neglect.”
“This staffing decline didn’t start with Mayor Bass,” union spokesperson Tom Saggau said. “But we hope it ends with Mayor Bass.”
On paper, Bass is proposing what looks like a minor adjustment to the LAPD’s authorized staffing. For nearly a year, the department has been budgeted for 9,460 officers, the amount approved by the City Council. Bass’ hiring target represents an increase of 40.
On another level, however, getting to 9,500 would be an incredibly tall order. The department is expected to lose about 600 officers in the coming year due to retirements and resignations. To reach Bass’ target, the LAPD would need to hire 1,000 officers over the next fiscal year, at a time when Police Academy classes are frequently half or two-thirds full.
Bass acknowledged the difficulty, saying she’s “not super confident” the LAPD will reach her goal.
“But I think it’s very important to set that as a marker — very important,” she said. “There’s no way I would say, ‘I want to get to 9,200.’ Again, because I’m really worried about further attrition.”
Bass will send her budget proposal to a council that is ideologically further left, and more skeptical of police, than it was when she launched her campaign in 2021. Two of the council’s newest members, Hugo Soto-Martinez and Eunisses Hernandez, argued against police hiring during their campaigns.
A third, Councilmember Nithya Raman, ran in 2020 on a platform that called for transforming the LAPD into a “much smaller, specialized armed force.”
Hernandez said Friday she wants police staffing to continue on its downward trajectory. She and Soto-Martinez said they want money that goes unspent on LAPD staffing to be shifted into social services.
“Our priority is to invest that money in programs that address some of the most common 911 calls, like homelessness, mental health and drug treatment, so we can alleviate the burden on police officers and improve public safety for the community,” Soto-Martinez said.
With the LAPD struggling to recruit, Raman is also making the case for expanded social services, such as after-school programs. “These programs are often easier to hire for, and are proven to make communities safer,” she said Sunday on Twitter.
The LAPD is not the only big-city law enforcement agency facing a shrinking workforce. According to FBI data, police department ranks in New York City and Philadelphia have decreased 8% and 9%, respectively, since 2019, while Chicago experienced an 11% drop.
That phenomenon can be traced, in part, to a shrinking labor pool and growing public scrutiny after a spate of high-profile police killings, said Niles R. Wilson, senior director of law enforcement initiatives for the Center for Policing Equity, which studies ways to reduce racism in policing. Many big-city agencies are losing officers to smaller, suburban departments that offer better pay and fewer risks, he said.
Wilson said younger people are less likely to go into a profession with longer hours and a high risk of injury. At the same time, he said, cities have begun sending mental health teams or other unarmed responders to calls once fielded by police.
“I think you’re going to start seeing [police] staffing levels are going to adjust, as jurisdictions start to adopt more alternative response models,” Wilson said.
In Los Angeles, Bass has begun moving in that direction, opening an office of community safety that does not involve police. Meanwhile, the LAPD has responded to the decrease in staffing by scaling back key operations.
The department has closed front desks at the vast majority of its police stations during nighttime hours and reduced the size of specialized units, such as those that pursue fugitives and investigate human trafficking, Moore said. The LAPD’s cold-case teams, which investigate unsolved murders, are staffed by reserve officers, he said.
“We’ve protected the uniformed patrol officers” who head out into neighborhoods, Moore said. “But we’ve downsized narcotics units in every area. We’ve downsized vice units in every area.”
The debate over police spending has been further complicated by a recent drop in crime. Homicides in L.A. were down 26% through April 1, compared with the same period last year. Robberies have declined 19% over the same time frame, while violent crime is down nearly 12%, according to department figures.
Raman recently highlighted the downward trend on social media. Moore, asked about those numbers, countered by saying crime has increased in many categories compared with 2019, the last pre-pandemic year.
Compared with four years ago, homicides are up 8% this year, while the number of shooting victims has climbed 30% and the number of vehicle thefts by 47%, LAPD figures show.
The Police Protective League, which is in contract talks with Bass and other city leaders, has argued in recent weeks that the city is not doing enough to persuade officers to stay. Union leaders said officers are experiencing low morale caused by rising anti-police sentiment, insufficient pay and difficult working conditions created by staffing shortages.
Saggau, the union spokesperson, said officers assigned to 10- or 12-hour days are regularly being ordered to work two to four additional overtime hours to meet minimum patrol levels, leaving them exhausted. Officers who specialize in gangs, narcotics or other subject areas are being pulled away from those duties to ensure that minimum patrol levels are maintained, Saggau said.
Moore said he attributes the rising number of departures to the “turmoil” of the last three years — COVID-19 and growing anti-police sentiment following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Some foes of policing have threatened officers on social media, he said.
Officers “are looking around the country and saying, ‘Wow, I could go someplace else and get a hiring bonus of 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 thousand dollars,'” Moore said.
Desperate to hire officers, city officials are looking to provide signing bonuses of $15,000 to $20,000 to new hires — a proposal heading to the City Council. The department has stepped up recruiting at historically Black colleges and East Coast universities. LAPD brass are looking at resurrecting the “bounce program,” which allows the chief to bring retired officers back for up to a year, in hopes of luring back as many as 200 retired cops.
The drop in LAPD staffing can be traced to 2020, the year City Hall was buffeted by a major budget crisis — one triggered by COVID-19 shutdowns — and massive street protests over Floyd’s murder. Demonstrators were demanding that city funds be shifted away from police and into social services.
Mayor Eric Garcetti and the council agreed to cut LAPD staffing to about 9,750, freeing up about $26 million. In the period that followed, the department kept shrinking, with officers leaving in larger-than-expected numbers.
Near the end of his term, Garcetti argued for a force of more than 9,700. Council members adopted what they said was a more achievable goal: 9,460 officers by June 30, the end of this fiscal year.
Those numbers also turned out to be unrealistic, with the department now more than 350 officers below the council’s goal.
While running for mayor, Bass promised to take the department back up to 9,700. She said she picked that number because it was the amount already authorized in the city budget.
Bass said she plans to spend the coming year determining the number of officers needed at the LAPD. Moore, for his part, said he would be satisfied with a return to 10,000.
“If we could have the workforce we had pre-pandemic, I think that we’d have a safer city,” he said
California gun owners recently won a significant victory from a federal court
judge who declared major parts of the state’s “Unsafe Handgun Act”
unconstitutional because it doesn’t allow newer pistols to be sold in
the state. Don’t party too hardy, as this was likely just the first round.
If you’ve never bought a handgun in California, good for you because the state law has been a train wreck, at least until recently when a federal judge struck down provisions in the law he found unconstitutional.
In the process, Judge Cormac J. Carney granted a preliminary injunction to the plaintiffs but granted a 14-day grace period during which the state could appeal the ruling. By the time you read this, the appeal should be in the works.
But Judge Carney’s 22-page ruling contained some gems, and he was blunt about the problems with a handgun “roster” law that has plagued Golden State gun owners for years. As any California can attest, the law has prevented new pistols from being marketed in the state unless they meet some strict standards which, upon reflection, seem deliberately engineered to keep new handgun models out, and perhaps ultimately eliminate handguns altogether.
Hang on while we take you through the word salad of California’s handgun ownership (prevention) law. “UHA” refers to the state law, known as the “Unsafe Handgun Act.” “CLI” refers to “chamber loaded indicator.” And, finally, MDM refers to “magazine disconnect mechanism.” Got it? Good, because here’s a bit of Judge Carney’s wisdom:
“Californians have the constitutional right to acquire and use state-of-the-art handguns to protect themselves,” Judge Carney observed. “They should not be forced to settle for decade-old models of handguns to ensure that they remain safe inside or outside the home. But unfortunately, the UHA’s CLI, MDM, and microstamping requirements do exactly that.
“California’s Unsafe Handgun Act (the “UHA”) seeks to prevent accidental discharges by requiring handguns to have particular safety features,” the judge acknowledged. “First, the UHA requires certain handguns to have a chamber load indicator (“CLI”), which is a device that indicates whether a handgun is loaded.
“Second,” he explained, “the UHA requires certain handguns to have a magazine disconnect mechanism (“MDM”), which prevents a handgun from being fired if the magazine is not fully inserted.
“Third,” Judge Carney concluded, “the UHA requires certain handguns to have the ability to transfer microscopic characters representing the handgun’s make, model, and serial number onto shell casings when the handgun is fired, commonly referred to as microstamping capability. No handgun available in the world has all three of these features.” Right, we’re talking about “microstamping,” and as noted by the judge, “The microstamping requirement has prevented any new handgun models from being added to the Roster since May 2013.”
Who Is Judge Carney?
Cormac Joseph Carney was chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California until he stepped down in 2020 over an incident involving alleged insensitive remarks to Kiry Gray, clerk of the Court.
He was born in Detroit in 1959, but was raised in Long Beach, Calif., graduating from high school there and going on to UCLA, where he played wide receiver for the Bruins football team. He practiced law in Los Angeles and was appointed to the California Superior Court. From there, he was nominated to the federal district court by former President George W. Bush and was confirmed by the Senate in April 2003.
He and his wife have three children, according to an online biography.
Enter the Double Standard
If it weren’t for double standards, California anti-gunners would have no standards at all.
To the point: In Judge Carney’s ruling, he notes, “The UHA’s prohibition on sales of ‘unsafe’ handguns is subject to exceptions as well. It does not apply to sales to law enforcement personnel, personnel from agencies including the California Highway Patrol, the Department of Justice, the Youth and Adult Correctional Agency, and the district attorney’s office, or any member of the military.”
He later adds, “if Off-Roster firearms were truly unsafe, California would not allow law enforcement to use them in the line of duty, when the stakes are highest. But the substantial majority of California’s law enforcement officers use Off-Roster handguns in the line of duty.”
And he points to another inconsistency in California bureaucratic reasoning when he notes, “The government argues that the balance of the equities weighs in its favor because an injunction would ‘permit unsafe handguns to be sold in California prior to trial, creating public safety risks.’
But the government’s safety concern rings hollow. Every single semiautomatic handgun available for sale in California at this time is a grandfathered handgun—one the government ostensibly considers ‘unsafe.’ 800 of 832 handguns on the Roster today lack CLI and MDM features. The government cannot credibly argue that handguns without CLI, MDM, and microstamping features pose unacceptable public safety risks when virtually all of the handguns available on the Roster and sold in California today lack those features.”
Can you say “oops?”
California attorney Chuck Michel is also president of the California
Rifle & Pistol Association. (Image courtesy Chuck Michel
Wise Counsel
Enter Chuck Michel, a California attorney with years of experience dealing with, and challenging, state gun control laws. With all the laws facing gun owners, Michel has had lots of practice.
The day Judge Carney handed down his ruling, I traded email with Michel, who also happens to be president of the California Rifle & Pistol Association, one of the plaintiffs in the case. His summation of the ruling was unsympathetic to the state.
“For decades this ‘roster’ law has deprived law-abiding citizens of the right to choose a handgun appropriate for their individual needs,” he observed about the Carney ruling. “The loaded chamber indicator, magazine disconnect, and microstamping requirements were impossible to satisfy, so the number of different models of approved handguns available to buy dropped to barely 200.
“And,” he added, “that’s how the politicians who would love to ban handguns entirely wanted it. If we can hold on to this great Second Amendment win, people will be able to choose from among thousands of the latest, greatest, and safest handguns made today.”
I’ve known Michel for about 20 years, and he earned this win, along with every Californian who has ever been victimized by the state handgun laws. Hopefully, the good guys will prevail.
CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb wants Republicans to block funding for the ATF until Democrats and Biden administration bureaucrats show some respect for the Second Amendment.
CCRKBA Says Unfund ATF
The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms recently did something to raise eyebrows. The group called on congressional Republicans to block funding for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).
There’s a condition, of course. CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb said money should be held up “until Democrats and federal bureaucrats publicly recognize Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens, and stop their attacks on legal gun ownership.”
“We’ve seen attacks on Second Amendment rights under previous Democrat presidents,” Gottlieb said in a news release, “but the Biden administration has pulled out all the stops. Joe Biden has publicly declared his desire to ban modern semiautomatic rifles and 9mm pistols, the most popular firearms in the nation.
Millions of honest citizens own semiautomatic rifles for all kinds of uses, including home defense, competition, predator control, recreational shooting and hunting, and they have never harmed anyone. Likewise, millions of men and women own and use 9mm pistols for personal and home protection, training, target shooting, competition, business protection, and other legitimate uses.
“But under Joe Biden,” he continued, “the ATF has been weaponized against law-abiding citizens, and his budget proposal includes $1.9 billion for the agency to expand operations and increase regulation of the firearms industry.
“Clearly,” Gottlieb said, “Biden and the Democrats have decided that American gun owners are their enemy.”