If Gun Control Works, Why Does San Fran Have an Issue with Guns in Tenderloin District?

“Gun control works.”

It’s said so much that it’s more of a case of a self-talk mantra than a serious argument, especially in light of all the actual evidence showing that it doesn’t. Still, they say it, and not just to themselves. They expect us to listen.

And to prove the supposed necessity of it, they trot out sob stories of people who lost loved ones to so-called gun violence, often lacking the details of how the killer got a gun; usually, they got it illegally.

But for me, I simply have to ask how, if gun control works so well, why are guns one of the things they have a problem with popping up in stores in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district?

More than $10,000 in cash. Methamphetamine. Gambling machines. 

This is just a taste of the contraband found in Tenderloin shops — evidence San Francisco officials say is proof that a late-night store curfew should continue and be expanded within some of the city’s most troubled neighborhoods.

Launched in 2024, the curfew aims to curb public drug use and other illegal activity outside of shops after dark. Now the net could widen to stores in SoMa, which faces similar street issues. 

“It’s infuriating for local businesses that we’re doing a good job of enforcing laws when it comes to plastic straws, but the things that are having a material effect on the success of their business, and sometimes their safety, we’re failing at,” said Supervisor Matt Dorsey, who this week introduced legislation to re-up the curfew for 18 more months. 
That thing about the plastic straws is a great point, because that’s absolutely stupid, too. Especially since the supposed evidence of plastic straws being a massive problem is kind of sketchy, at best.

And paper straws suck. I don’t care what anyone tries to tell you. I stayed away from the movie theater here in town for over a year, despite my love of going to the movies, simply because the paper straws they had were beyond awful.

Moving on…

Law enforcement officials point to a series of busts suggesting that some corner stores perpetuate the crime problem. 

Police have found drugs, stolen goods, and firearms at Tenderloin shops, according to documents shared with The Standard by the city attorney’s office. The office has sued or shuttered nine stores that have violated the nighttime curfew or engaged in other illicit activity in the last year and a half.

Some busts have been sizable: SF Discount Market at 238 Leavenworth St. was found by authorities to have nine gambling slot machines, a high-capacity magazine and ammunition for a Glock, 17 iPhones, and sheets of aluminum foil used to smoke fentanyl. The city attorney sued the shop in October 2024, and the court ordered it closed as the legal case continues. 

TL Market and Deli at 200 Leavenworth was found to have a loaded firearm, $6,153 in cash, and seven slot machines. The shop also stocked glass pipes and Brillo pads, which are used to smoke methamphetamine and crack cocaine. The city attorney sued in October 2024. Eviction proceedings initiated by the landlord will likely wrap up this year. 

Let’s keep in mind that San Francisco isn’t exactly a Second Amendment sanctuary community. They fully enforce all of the state’s draconian gun control laws.

Yet if those laws were effective, why are guns showing up so regularly in businesses in a troubled district despite the laws meant to prevent that?

A hint lies in the other goods found.

Drugs and slot machines aren’t exactly legal in San Francisco, either. Neither is the sale of stolen goods. Yet, if these businesses are going to engage in these enterprises, why would anyone think laws restricting gun ownership would provide much of a hurdle?

The simple answer is that it doesn’t, despite how gun control laws are sold to the American public.

And little enough is really being done to curb this aspect of crime. Instead, time and energy are focused on attacking lawful gun owners, making it harder for would-be gun owners, and otherwise pretending that the lawful gun trade is the real problem despite ample evidence that it’s not.

The Tenderloin isn’t a problem because there are illegal guns there. There are illegal guns there because it’s a problem district and has been for ages. Nothing is changing on that front, and because of that, people want guns to protect themselves from rivals, unhappy customers of their illicit trades, and even just the garden-variety psychos running around on the streets of San Francisco.

Gun control will never fix that, no matter what they claim.

Editor’s Note: The radical left will stop at nothing to enact their radical gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.

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