The idea of a city in California taking an anti-gun stand at any given opportunity. We’ve seen it through countless bits of legislation at the state and local levels of California’s government. They don’t like guns, despite the massive increase in gun ownership in recent days.

For Fresno city officials, though, the COVID-19 virus was just too good of a crisis to allow it to go to waste.

The City of Fresno has now declared a “state of emergency”, and doing so grants the city wide-ranging powers under its “Emergency Services Ordinance”.

Fox26 News asked for and got a copy of the full ordinance. Among other things, after an emergency declaration, it allows the city to:

1. Suspend the sale of firearms and ammo.

2. Suspend the sale of alcohol.

3. Order a general curfew.

4. Order the closing of all taverns.

5. Order a price or rate freeze on consumer goods and on hotels if lodging is limited.

7. Order a halt to gasoline sales, except as fuel pumped into vehicles’ gasoline tanks.

8. Order the closing of any business where crowds “tend to gather”, including theaters, amusement areas, gyms, stadiums, etc.

Fox26 News reached out to the City Government to ask if the ordinance has been challenged in court, or if it has survived a legal challenge. Nobody was available to comment at the time of this writing. We will continue to ask for comment.

Now, while the ordinance doesn’t expressly ban guns or alcohol sales, it does give them the authority to do so in an instant. That’s a huge problem, but honestly, so is much of these other things as well.

Hell, let’s talk about the curfew for a moment. Is there some evidence the virus is more contagious after midnight? No, then what the hell is the point?

Then again, it’s not like gun ownership makes you more contagious either, and they’re ready to restrict the Second Amendment. This isn’t surprising, though. Cities like Fresno have been hoping to find a way to completely ban gun sales within their cities for ages now. For them, the virus is little more than a handy excuse.

In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that they hope the emergency continues for years, just so they can continue to have the pretext to completely restrict people’s right to keep and bear arms regardless of any actual bearing on what’s happening.

Not to say there won’t be an impact on any such restrictions. There will. It just won’t help.

You see, if people get desperate for supplies, supplies that may not be coming, they’re going to go out and do what they need to do to get food and other essentials for their families. Those who are most inclined to take from others, though? They’ve already got guns. They have guns and/or friends who will help them take people’s stuff.

All that restrictions on lawful gun sales will do is reduce people’s ability to purchase the goods they need to protect them and theirs.

Not that the city of Fresno likely gives a damn about that.