Pelosi Gloats About Gun Shop

Conservative blog Hot Air recently commented on the closing of the last gun shop in San Francisco. For the owner, the last straw in an enormous heap of regulations was a new requirement that he videotape every transaction, and hand the tapes over to the police every week, even in the absence of suspicious activity. After likening Nancy Pelosi's response to the closure to that of a Martian, the blog cries foul on the regulation:

"The idea of the proposal is to be forward-looking," said Jess Montejano, a legislative aide to [city supervisor Mark] Farrell. "If Congress isn't going to act [on tighter gun control], we will do everything possible to protect the public safety of our residents."

For a city that's so concerned about protecting the public safety of the residents they really don't seem to be terribly worried about what happened to Kathryn Steinle or how to prevent such things in the future. In fact, following her murder there actually was a public outcry to change some laws but it had nothing to do with the legal sale of guns...

It might be worth noting at the next city council meeting that Kathryn's killer didn't buy his gun at a store or go through any background checks. He stole it... [link added]

True: Actual concern for public safety would preclude closing a gun shop -- but not just because of the need for self-defense against criminals. The elephant in this room is that alleged concern by the government for anything other than protecting individual rights is the wrong motive for government action, particularly one that makes it impossible for someone to pursue an honest livelihood. The government exists in part to protect us from criminals.

In San Francisco, it isn't just failing to do this: It's behaving like a criminal enterprise, ordering around the locals like a mob boss. Perhaps because the writer at Hot Air was more concerned with making this into an anti-immigration story, he missed the true nature of Nancy Pelosi's response. The following is gloating: "It is my understanding that they made a decision, a business decision that regulations didn't shut them down."

-- CAV