California Gov. Brown blasts Arizona, Nevada gun laws

Dec. 3, 2015: California Gov. Jerry Brown reacts as he speaks during a press conference near the site of yesterday's mass shooting in San Bernardino, Calif. (AP)

In wake of the San Bernardino massacre which left 14 dead earlier this week, California Gov. Jerry Brown went on the attack Saturday slamming neighboring states’ gun laws.

Brown told the Sacramento Bee that Nevada and Arizona are a “gigantic back door through which any terrorist can walk.” Brown was in France for climate talks and was noncommittal on whether to strengthen the state’s gun control laws.

“California has some of the toughest gun control laws of any state,” Brown said. “And Nevada and Arizona are wide open, so that’s a gigantic back door through which any terrorist can walk.”

Brown also called Wednesday’s shooting a terrorist attack, while the FBI said Friday it is investigating the shooting as an “act of terrorism.”

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey responded to Brown’s comments saying his words were “out of bounds.”

“Not only will we be ignoring Gov. Brown’s advice, but I call on him to retract his incredibly thoughtless and ill-advised comments,” Ducey said in a statement.

Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake also also took a swipe at Brown, saying on Twitter "we've done okay taking not taking policy cues from California."

The weapons used in the atrocity committed by Sayed Riswan Farook and Tashfeen Malik were purchased legally in California. Brown delayed his trip to the UN Summit on climate change by one day and told the newspaper the investigation into the shooting is a federal matter. Brown along with other world leaders are in France to negotiate an agreement on climate change.

“It’s an important topic, this is an important forum, California has a role to play, and I want to make sure I did that,” Brown added. “At the same time, I don’t minimize the significance of this terrorist attack. It’s a very clear indication that this is a global phenomenon and that people who are committed to this jihadist doctrine are going to be killing people in very unexpected places. So we have to be, as I said, we have to be on guard and we have to do whatever we can do.”

Brown said he would look at tightening gun control laws. Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom introduced a measure in October to strengthen laws and said in a statement on Saturday a measure that would ban the possession of large-capacity magazines would “set the gold standard for meaningful reforms to stop gun violence.”

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