Saturday evening around 7 P.M., two L.A. sheriff's deputies were ambushed in their patrol car in the Compton area of Los Angeles County.  A short, stocky man with dark skin, wearing a gray hoodie over a white t-shirt and black shorts and carrying a handgun, walked up to the police car.  There, he quickly fired twice through the passenger window with his pistol, then he fled the scene on foot.  This was caught on camera and released by the L.A. Sheriff's Office.

At last report, the deputies are out of surgery and "fighting for their lives."  However, while they underwent emergency surgery and follow-up recovery, Black Lives Matter protesters outside the hospital blocked the entrance to the E.R., tried to gain access to the hospital, then chanted that they hoped he would "F------ die."

A social justice warrior and self-styled socialist, Asiya, who advocates for abolishing the police, boldly tweeted on the sheriff's twitter feed:

This was self defense. He felt threatened by two thugs [i.e., the deputies] sitting in their car with weapons, esp after so much footage of cops murdering innocent people in broad daylight. These thugs were def looking for trouble. I'd need to see their police record before coming to any conclusions.

Other SJWs also posted to the sheriff's Twitter account supporting this view, with several of them echoing the sentiments of an individual who said, "I believe these officers must have done something to deserve this."

In a powerful tweet, President Trump said, "If they die, fast trial death penalty for killers. Only way to stop this!"  He then tweeted, "Please pray for these two Sheriff Deputies. Their lives matter!!!  #BlueLivesMatter."  This was an appropriate response from an engaged leader to a heinous crime, caught live on camera in the streets of Compton.  Note that he didn't try to make political capital out of this evolving tragedy.

Candidate Joe Biden had a different response.  After conventionally tweeting a bloodless message without any sign of personal feelings, saying that ambushing two police officers is "unacceptable… and entirely counterproductive," his real message followed later on Sunday, even as the sheriff's deputies were fighting for their lives, when he tweeted: "Weapons of war have no place in our communities.  We need to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines." 

While I agree that this shooting is "unacceptable" — perhaps the most tepid possible response to this ambush — I was stunned by Biden's blatant politicization of the shooting with a totally off-base call for banning weapons of war and assault weapons.  Why?  Because as the videos released by the sheriff demonstrate, the shooter used a pistol, held in one hand, to shoot the officers.  A ban on "weapons of war" and "assault weapons" or "high-capacity magazines" would have done nothing to prevent this shooting, assuming that assassins are assiduous in following gun control laws.  The assassin used a pistol, not a "weapon of war" or an "assault weapon," and he fired only twice, so even a low-capacity magazine would not have made a difference.

If you're going to ban something as a response to evil violence, shouldn't you focus your ban on the kind of weapon actually used?  What is the point of trying to leverage a heinous shooting for political reasons if not to...?  No, wait.  I forgot.  This is Joe Biden.  Everything takes second place to generating political capital, including the truth.

Image: LA Sheriff's Department