The man accused of shooting at a Southern California business, killing four people, should not have been able to buy or possess guns due to a state law that prohibits people from buying guns for 10 years after being convicted of a crime.
Aminadab Gaxiola González was convicted of assault in 2015, which should have prevented him from possessing or purchasing weapons or ammunition at stores that conduct background checks.
However, it is unclear how the 44-year-old shooter acquired the weapons used in the March 31 shooting. The tragedy raises concerns about California’s ability to enforce strict gun control laws, the Sacramento Bee reported on Friday.
Police say the suspect targeted Unified Homes, a mobile home brokerage in Orange, and had personal and business relationships with the victims. His estranged wife had worked in the business for more than 10 years as an assistant broker.
The shooting occurred nearly six years after Gaxiola pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor assault, which should have put him on the list that prohibits him from owning firearms for the next 10 years. The list is used during the state’s gun and ammunition background check process.
Two weeks after the mass shooting, police learned that the alleged gunman was not included on the “Banned Persons List,” although he may still not be allowed to buy a gun during a standard background check, said Lt. Orange cop Jennifer Amat.
Detectives were still working to track down the Glock semi-automatic pistol and ammunition, Amat reported.
It’s rare for a background check to miss a banned person, or for a merchant to decide to continue selling to a banned customer, said Steve Lindley, a former head of the California Department of Justice’s Office of Firearms who now works as a manager. of programs in the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.
Even with all the interim remedies in a “very, very good system” people continue to acquire guns illegally, Lindley said.
The 19-year-old took his own life after killing eight people.
“Unfortunately, where there are strict gun laws, there will always be a market for illegal firearms,” he continued. “Because people want to get them one way or another.”
California in 2016 became the first and only state in the nation to establish the Armed and Prohibited Persons System to track firearm owners who are in a prohibited category based on their criminal history or risk. themselves or for others.
The system is intended to prevent firearm violence by preventing those who are deemed too risky to own a firearm from owning or purchasing a weapon. By extracting records from various databases, the system is supposed to alert authorities when someone who once legally purchased a firearm falls on the banned list.
Agents from the Department of Justice, which administers the state’s background check system, will track down a prohibited person to seize their weapons and ammunition. The agency says it lacks the staff to clear the backlog, a problem officials noted was made more pronounced by staff shortages caused by the pandemic.
On Sunday night a vigil was held in memory of the 4 victims who died in a shooting in the city of Orange where dozens of people were present as well as family members.
Without knowing more about how the shooter got his gun and ammunition, there are “missing pieces in the story that are critical” to understanding whether he got them due to institutional failure, said Dr. Garen Wintemute, an emergency medicine physician at UC. Davis Medical Center, where he is the director of the Violence Prevention Research Program.
The shooter was charged with four counts of murder and three counts of attempted murder for shooting at two officers who shot and wounded him when he shot them with his pistol, and for seriously injuring a woman, the mother of a 9-year-old boy who died in his arms.
The assailant’s arraignment has been repeatedly postponed because the defendant remains hospitalized and unable to communicate with his court-appointed attorneys.