Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva has ordered gun stores in his jurisdiction to close, declaring that they are "not an essential function" and should not remain open during California's order to shut down nonessential businesses.
He also commented that the increase in gun sales locally and nationwide could cause unnecessary violence during that statewide shutdown over the coronavirus pandemic, reports The Hill, quoting a local Fox affiliate.
“I’m a supporter of the Second Amendment," Villanueva said. "I’m a gun owner myself, but now you have the mixture of people that are not formerly gun owners and you have a lot more people at home, and anytime you introduce a firearm in a home, from what I understand from CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] studies, it increases fourfold the chance that someone is gonna get shot."
Villanueva has added 1,300 deputies to patrol in his county, and released 1,700 nonviolent inmates from local jails since Gov. Gavin Newsom issued the stay-at-home order.
The sheriff also complained of a lack of communication between public safety officials and politicians in the state.
“When we’re communicating with the shelter in place or the safer at home, there’s a lot of anguish," said Villanueva. "However, the people who have to enforce it are public safety, and we were totally out of the process, we were not involved."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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