British Band Robbed at Gun Point in Most Gun-Controlled State in US

I knew I was getting older when suddenly there were celebrities I had no idea what they were famous for. Of course, it turns out that most of them are famous for being famous or something, but then it got into musical acts that I’d never heard of.

And, honestly, I’m OK with that. A lot of what passes for popular music sounds pretty much the same, so I have no interest in following it. I don’t fault others who do, it’s just clearly not my thing and I’m not their audience.

So it’s no surprise that a relatively new band called Sports Team hadn’t been on my radar.

They’re on it now, not because of their music, which I still haven’t bothered to hear, but because of something that happened to them.

The British band Sports Team was robbed at gunpoint Tuesday in Vallejo, California, just minutes after they had begun their U.S. tour.

FOX News noted that the members of the band were inside a Starbucks when someone ran inside to alert patrons that a group of individuals had broken into a van.

Sports Team used an Instagram post to provide details, “Ran out to try to stop it and find masked guys ransacking the van. Start yelling and they pull out a gun. Police response was ‘submit an online report.’ Lost a lot of personal gear, but they didn’t get the instruments so driving on to Sacramento to play tonight.”

The UK’s Sky News spoke with Sports Team front man Alex Rice, who summed up the band’s reaction to the robbery by saying, “So, haven’t played a note yet, one minute in, we’ve got our stuff taken.”

Rice claimed police response was “really shocking.”

The fact that their US tour involves them driving around the country in a van suggests they’re not exactly household names yet, which means they didn’t have the means to have armed security protecting their stuff.

The band referred to the police’s response to an in-progress theft as “really shocking.” I mean, your stuff is being stolen, a gun is pointed at you, and they tell you to go online and report it that way. That’s really not how it’s supposed to work.

Realistically, there’s not going to be a lot of investigation, but if an officer had come out and taken their statements, then written up the report, they’d at least feel like someone gave a damn.

But they don’t.

And California wonders why people are fleeing the state in record numbers.

Now, let’s talk about the fact that this was an armed robbery. 

This is California, the most gun-controlled state in the nation. There are extensive rules on who can own a gun, what they have to do to buy one, and a pile of other things. If any state could prove gun control worked, it’s California. 

Yet we see how that went.

These aren’t high-level criminals with international connections. These are street punks. These are the kind of criminals who rob a van outside of a Starbucks. If they can get guns, which criminals in the state can’t?

None.