Given his state’s awful fiscal policy, I generally don’t have anything nice to say about Gavin Newsom, California Governor.
And I don’t like his proposal to amend the Constitution to weaken gun rights, which is our topic for today.
But I give him credit for trying to do the wrong (and ineffective) thing in the right way.
Unlike other leftists, who want to enact laws to limit the right to keep and bear arms, Gov. Newsom is proposing a 28th Amendment to achieve those misguided goals.
I suspect his proposal primarily is designed to help his presidential ambitions, but let’s treat it as a serious idea.
Caroline Downey describes Newsom’s new initiative for National Review.
California Governor Gavin Newsom is proposing a 28th amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would enshrine gun restrictions nationwide… The longshot proposal, which Newsom announced on Thursday, would increase the federal minimum age to purchase a firearm from 18 to 21, mandate universal background checks, impose a waiting period for all gun purchases, and prohibit civilians from acquiring so-called assault weapons. …The liberal California governor hopes that the enactment of the 28th amendment will pave the way for more stringent gun regulations nationally, and at the state and local level.
I don’t like this proposed amendment, especially the ban on “assault weapons.”
As discussed more than 10 years ago, these guns function the same as ordinary rifles. The only difference is that they look scary to some people.
Which means Newsom’s proposal will give politicians and bureaucrats the power to dictate the cosmetic appearance of guns. Or it could be an opening to ban just about every gun.
There’s also a practical issue. As explained in the second half of this Reason video, confiscating tens of millions of guns would be very impractical. If not downright destabilizing and dangerous.
P.S. I have three IQ tests (here, here, and here) on gun control for my left-leaning friends.
[…] seems that some people in California (though not the governor) are waking up on the […]
The video leaves out a step that’s necessary to create a gun free America. Many state constitutions protect the right to keep and bear arms. Consequently, those state constitutions would have to be amended to remove those protections.
The stupidity or insanity of legislating inanimate things, instead of the human that misuses them, continues to amaze me almost as much as the selective application of the concept.
I’m far more cynical than you. I see Newsom – Pelosi’s nephew – as pandering to illogical far left wing socialists who, let’s not forget, were ideologically the same as Germany’s World War II Nazis.
And every single dictator has implemented gun confiscation, as did the Nazis. As Larry Correia noted:
“Over the last fifty years, with only one single exception (Gabby Giffords), every single mass shooting event with more than four casualties has taken place in a place where guns were supposedly not allowed.”
Newsom is a highly skilled opportunist and an expert in political theatre. He plays the news cycle and the reporters like a violin. It will go nowhere. Yet, after he tries and fails he can deliver a beautiful somber soliloquy about his syphon task to save lives – broadcast to the world.
Mr. Mitchell,
The British tried gun confiscation prior to 1776. It didn’t end well for them.
Kevin Susquehanna County, PA Sent from my Behemoth Dell 690