“Three 7-Eleven stores hit by large group of thieves on bicycles in Hollywood,” KNBC4 Los Angeles reported Friday. “All three convenience stores were broken into just minutes apart.”

In addition to being robbed, one store was left with a broken window. In another, multiple assailants roughed up an employee. The same tactics and timing… yet “Police have not confirmed if all three robberies are connected.”

The robbers are described as “kids and teenagers.” That’s not very helpful in identifying them and bringing them to justice—not that anyone is under any illusions that, even if caught, they’ll be incentivized to stop victimizing others.

And there’s one additional key piece of information that makes it into the video presentation but is left out of the written report. A headline from another news source, the New York Post, shows what should have been emphasized:

California thieves strike 3 7-Eleven stores in under 20 minutes hours after Newsom signed ‘landmark’ package to curb smash-and-grab crime

Criminals don’t obey the law. And when they don’t fear being caught and punished, they really don’t obey the law.

George Soros-backed prosecutor George Gascón’s soft-on-crime policies and massive case backlog mean catch-and-release instead of incarceration for criminals. The excuse offered by Democrats to pander to urban voters is because they’re “overrepresented” in the criminal justice system because of “systemic racism.” That the perpetrators, often recipients of generational public assistance, are the ones overrepresenting themselves in the system, is further excused (and even justified) by claims of “poverty.” That must be a real head-scratcher for many of their victims, immigrants from countries with real poverty working hard to make better lives for themselves in America, some employed by the very stores being sacked and pillaged.

Don’t expect Gavin Newsom’s “landmark” law to slow criminals down any more than the “gun control” laws he and the rest of the Democrat establishment push stop criminals from arming themselves to victimize the “law-abiding” who obey such edicts.

But do expect retail establishments like 7-Eleven to continue being viewed by predators as soft targets of opportunity, “thanks” to a combination of California gun laws and company policy.

As AmmoLand reported four years ago following the slaying of one of their clerks, 7-Eleven does not allow its clerks to be armed. They have even gone so far, according to a poster documented on ConcealedNation.org, as to instruct employees on how to not resist robbers, and to also rat out any co-workers who may be hiding in a back room. Should that result in injury or death, the corporation had already established the precedent that they’re not liable for what happens to franchisee clerks.

“Oh, thank Heaven”?

There’s a universal law of nature that no amount of prohibitionist gaslighting can deny, at least to people capable of recognizing truth: Predators prefer easy prey.

Then again, we’re talking California in general and Hollywood in particular in this latest smash-and-grab trifecta, so it’s not hard to imagine a successful defensive gun use resulting in a clerk’s life ruined, a dead perp (represented in the media by photos as a smiling child) being elevated to sainthood, and a community in flames.

And while the quick answer is to say just stay out of such locales, the collectivists who would control us all are bent on bringing such conditions everywhere, to Everytown.

Also see: Let Anti-Gun Convenience Store Chain President Put His Money Where His Mouth Is

About David Codrea:

David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.