A liberal organization says Gov. Gavin Newsom’s, D-Calif., proposal to curb gun rights through a new amendment to the Constitution is “offensive” grandstanding.
“I find it really frustrating as a liberal because we all know this is never gonna happen,” Lara Smith of The Liberal Gun Club told Fox News Digital. “I think it’s grandstanding and I find it offensive.”
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Newsom unveiled his proposal for the 28th Amendment to the Constitution on Thursday morning.
“The 28th Amendment will enshrine in the Constitution common sense gun safety measures that Democrats, Republicans, Independents, and gun owners overwhelmingly support – while leaving the 2nd Amendment unchanged and respecting America’s gun-owning tradition,” the California Democrat said in a press release.
Newsom’s proposed amendment would not abolish the Second Amendment, which protects the right to bear firearms. However, it would increase the federal minimum age to buy a gun from 18 to 21, mandate universal background checks, implement a waiting period for all gun purchases, and ban so-called “assault weapons.”
The proposal largely mirrors California’s own gun control laws, which are among the strictest in the nation. His four agenda items also had wide support among American voters in a recent Fox News poll.
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“California’s nation-leading gun safety laws serve as a valuable blueprint for other states and Congress to save lives,” the press release from Newsom’s office reads. “California’s gun safety laws work.”
The Golden State has one of the lowest rates of firearm mortality in the country, according to 2021 data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The same CDC data showed New Hampshire — which received an F score on its gun laws from the pro-gun control Giffords Law Center — has an even lower firearm mortality rate than California.
Smith said Newsom is “twisting the statistics” to support his cause, because “gun mortality is not a single issue.”
“I just wish that Newsom would actually start focusing on the real issues and real solutions,” she said. The Liberal Gun Club supports what it calls root cause mitigation, a strategy that address the driving factors of suicide, homicide and mass shootings.
Ultimately, Smith doesn’t believe the amendment stands a chance of passing.
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The Constitution can be amended in two ways: By a two-thirds vote in both chambers of Congress, or through a convention of states under Article V.
Since Republicans control the House of Representatives and Democrats hold a slim majority in the Senate, an amendment restricting gun rights would almost certainly fail to pass through Congress. So Newsom is calling for a convention of states to meet and draft his proposed amendment.
Two-thirds of the state legislatures would have to first pass a resolution calling for such a convention before it could meet, then if the convention adopts a proposed amendment, the amendment would head back to state legislatures for ratification. Three-fourths of the state legislatures would have to support the amendment for it to be added to the Constitution.
“I don’t know where [Newsom] thinks he’s getting the three fourths of the states from,” Smith said.
The most recent amendment ratified was the 27th Amendment in 1992, more than 200 years after its original proposal.
“If you keep focusing on things like these undefined supposed solutions that don’t actually say how they’re gonna work, we don’t get anything done,” Smith said. “We don’t actually solve the problems that the country is facing. I think it’s window dressing.”
