(The Center Square) – California Governor Gavin Newsom introduced his United States constitutional amendment creating national gun rights restrictions to the California legislature, the first step in his highly publicized but unlikely amendment’s journey to codification.
The proposed “Right to Safety” 28th amendment, would raise the national minimum age to buy a gun to 21, ban “assault weapons,” and codify the right of federal, state and local governments to enact more strict gun laws. Less controversially, the amendment also would require background checks and waiting periods for all gun purchases.
To become part of the constitution, the amendment must be adopted by an Article V amendatory convention of at least 34 states, including California. Senate Joint Resolution 7, introduced by Senator Wahab (D–Fremont) and Assemblymember Reggie Jones-Sawyer (D–South Los Angeles) would make California the first state in the nation to call for a convention on adopting this amendment.
Citing claims that guns are a part of 110 deaths per day in the United States, Newsom said in a press release that, “In the time it will take to pass our Right to Safety Resolution calling for a constitutional convention, more Americans will lose their lives to gun violence than were killed on September 11.”
According to the National Safety Congress, which tracks national deaths and injuries from different causes, suicides account for 53% of gun deaths, with homicides 43%, and the remainder from legal intervention, accident, and unknown causes. The use of illegally acquired firearms in crime varies from state to state, with experts from nonprofit fact checking organization Politifact finding legally acquired weapons are used in an estimated 3 to 11% of crimes.
“Newsom’s latest publicity stunt once again shows that his unhinged contempt for the right to self-defense has no bounds,” said National Rifle Association Spokesman Billy McLaughlin in response to an inquiry. “California is a beacon for violence because of Newsom’s embrace of policies that champion the criminal and penalize the law-abiding. That is why the majority of Americans rightfully reject his California-style gun control.”