Was the semiautomatic gun used in the Monterey Park shooting illegal?

The shooting in Monterey Park, California has sparked new calls to tighten California’s gun laws. The weapon used in the attack was likely illegal to have in California, however, and it is not clear whether the gunman was obtained by legal means.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said in a press conference that the shooter opened fire in the dance studio, leaving 11 dead and nine others wounded, using a semiautomatic assault pistol magazine-fed with a high-capacity magazine attached. Police recovered the weapon after the operator of a second dance studio in Alhambra, a city about two miles north of Monterey Park, disarmed the gunman when he walked in the door, apparently with the intention of shooting more people.

The attacks have rocked the Chinese-majority American community in the midst of Lunar New Year celebrations and increased violence against Asian Americans in the US in recent years.

It’s unclear how the shooter obtained the gun, which was a Cobray M11 9mm semi-automatic weapon compatible with a 30-round magazine, CNN reported. It is also not clear whether the shooter legally got the second weapon recovered from inside his van – the handgun he used to fatally shot himself. A second gun can be purchased in California; the first has been banned in the country for more than thirty years.

That semi-automatic weapons are now illegal in the state makes California unusual; such weapons can be legally purchased in most of the US. And this has led California politicians not only to call for stronger laws in the state, but across the US.

Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat who has signed some of the strictest gun control measures in the nation during his tenure, said that the shooting should encourage the rest of the nation to follow California’s lead.

“There is no other country in the world that is so afraid of the ongoing gun violence. We need real gun reform at the national level,” he said tweeted Week.

California’s strict gun control laws probably prohibit handguns from being used in shootings

California ranks first in the nation for the strength of its gun laws, according to Everytown for Gun Safety, an organization that advocates for gun control. The law is so broad that there are questions about how stricter state lawmakers can enact it without facing extensive legal challenges, like the one facing Illinois’ new gun control measures.

Partly because of the current law, California’s gun violence rate is relatively low: data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that only 8.5 per 100,000 people in the state died at the end of a gun in 2020, compared to the national average of 13.7.

California is one of eight states, along with Washington, DC, to ban assault weapons like those used in shootings, which are designed to kill efficiently, without the shooter having to reload. Most Americans support banning assault-style weapons, including 83 percent of Democrats and 37 percent of Republicans, according to an April 2021 survey by Pew Research.

National efforts to ban assault weapons have repeatedly failed in recent years. Congress enacted the last national ban in 1994; expired after 10 years when lawmakers failed to renew the ban in 2004. The law also includes a ban on high-capacity magazines, which most Americans would support renewing, according to a Pew survey. But as with banning assault weapons, there’s a big partisan divide: 83 percent of Democrats and 41 percent of Republicans favor it.

California’s ban precedes the latest federal action. It took effect in 1989 after five children were killed in a shooting at an elementary school in Stockton, and specifically prohibits the sale, manufacture, acquisition, or purchase of the model gun used in Saturday’s shooting. There is a chance, however, that the gunman, who is 72 years old, may have obtained the gun used in the shooting before the ban went into effect, allowing him to legally retain ownership under the law’s grandfather clause.

Shooters can also obtain guns legally from the state, or illegally from gun dealers. Neighboring states like Nevada and Oregon have cracked down on the gun trade by requiring background checks in recent years. But Arizona doesn’t require background checks to buy any type of gun, which is the largest source of out-of-state weapons tracked to California in 2021, according to data from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

California is also one of only 14 states that have banned high-capacity magazines, which can hold anything from 10 to 100 rounds and account for approximately 22 to 36 percent of guns involved in crime nationwide, according to Everytown. California’s ban — which specifically restricts the sale, manufacture, and importation of high-capacity magazines — went into effect in 2000. But like the assault weapons ban, there is a clause that would allow shooters to have high-capacity magazines. if he bought it before.

In 2016, California voters approved a ballot measure to remove the exemption and make it illegal to own high-capacity magazines in the state, but it has yet to take effect because it has been tied up in federal court.

People can legally buy handguns in California like the one the shooter used to kill himself. But there are restrictions: generally you must be over 21 years old to buy a firearm and can only do so from a licensed dealer after a 10-day waiting period and after showing ID and proof of state residency, as well as completing a safety certificate and demonstration. A concealed carry license issued by California authorities is also required to carry a handgun in public.

Los Angeles and federal authorities, including the FBI and ATF, are looking into how the shooter got the gun and what they could have done to prevent the weapon from falling into their hands. But the investigation is still ongoing, and police have not said whether the shooter’s gun was illegal.