Karen Bass, Nithya Raman Projected Winners in the Primary for Los Angeles Mayoral Race as Spencer Pratt Falls

June 7, 2026
9:11 pm

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In a city where the Second Amendment is already treated like an unwelcome houseguest, the projected runoff between Karen Bass and Nithya Raman signals that Los Angeles voters are doubling down on the same anti-gun orthodoxy that has fueled record smash-and-grab thefts and open-air drug markets. Bass, a longtime congressional ally of the gun-control lobby, has repeatedly backed magazine bans, “assault weapon” restrictions, and red-flag laws that sidestep due process; Raman, a self-described progressive, has gone further by championing policies that treat lawful gun ownership as inherently suspect. Their likely November showdown means Angelenos can expect an even more aggressive push to criminalize the mere possession of standard-capacity magazines or to tax ammunition into oblivion—measures that do nothing to disarm criminals but everything to disarm the law-abiding. Spencer Pratt’s third-place finish underscores how little appetite exists in Los Angeles for candidates who might actually defend the right to keep and bear arms; his outsider persona never translated into a serious 2A platform, leaving voters with a binary choice between two flavors of restriction. For the firearms community this is more than local theater: Los Angeles remains the policy petri dish whose ordinances are copied by other blue cities and then cited in federal court as “evidence” that gun control enjoys popular support. Expect renewed calls for micro-stamping, expanded background-check databases, and “sensitive places” rules that turn virtually every public space into a gun-free zone, all while the city’s actual crime statistics continue to expose the failure of these very policies. The takeaway for pro-2A advocates is clear—organize, litigate, and vote with your feet. California’s mayoral races may feel distant, but the ripple effects reach every range, gun shop, and self-defense instructor in the state. If Bass or Raman ultimately wins, the next two years will test whether the courts will finally treat Los Angeles’ gun-control regime as the constitutional outlier it is, or whether the city’s voters will simply hand the keys to the same people who have spent decades pretending that disarming the innocent somehow protects them from predators who already ignore every law on the books.

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Spencer Pratt’s third-place finish underscores how little appetite exists in Los Angeles for candidates who might actually defend the right to keep and bear arms; his outsider persona never translated into a serious 2A platform, leaving voters with a binary choice between two flavors of restriction. For the firearms community this is more than local theater: Los Angeles remains the policy petri dish whose ordinances are copied by other blue cities and then cited in federal court as “evidence” that gun control enjoys popular support. Expect renewed calls for micro-stamping, expanded background-check databases, and “sensitive places” rules that turn virtually every public space into a gun-free zone, all while the city’s actual crime statistics continue to expose the failure of these very policies.

The takeaway for pro-2A advocates is clear—organize, litigate, and vote with your feet. California’s mayoral races may feel distant, but the ripple effects reach every range, gun shop, and self-defense instructor in the state. If Bass or Raman ultimately wins, the next two years will test whether the courts will finally treat Los Angeles’ gun-control regime as the constitutional outlier it is, or whether the city’s voters will simply hand the keys to the same people who have spent decades pretending that disarming the innocent somehow protects them from predators who already ignore every law on the books.

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