California Governor Gavin Newsom is proposing a 28th amendment to the US Constitution to restrict gun ownership, after a record year of mass shootings.
The Democrats’ plan would leave the 2nd Amendment unchanged and “respect” America’s “tradition of gun ownership.”
But he demanded “common sense constitutional protections and gun safety measures that Democrats, Republicans, independent voters and gun owners overwhelmingly support.”
This would include “universal background checks, raising the age for purchasing firearms to 21, introducing a waiting period for the purchase of firearms and banning of the civilian purchase of assault weapons”.
All of these hot political topics have divided Congress as well as state legislatures. They haven’t been able to clear Congress, where Republicans have successfully obstructed gun control measures in the past.
Last June, the Democratic-controlled House passed a gun package to increase the age of certain gun purchases, limit the size of gun magazines and codify regulations on “reserve stocks”. He died in the Senate.
A new amendment to the Constitution must pass by two-thirds of Congress or be implemented by two-thirds of the states.
California Governor Gavin Newsom Proposes 28th Amendment to US Constitution to Restrict Gun Ownership
The courts have dismissed numerous legislative remedies regarding firearms. Last year, the Supreme Court overturned a New York restriction limiting who could carry concealed firearms in public, ruling that people were entitled to carry for self-defense.
This will not be the end of the remedies proposed by Newom. “Additionally, the 28th Amendment will affirm that Congress, states, and local governments may enact additional common-sense gun safety rules that save lives,” its statement said.
Newsom is a prominent figure in his party who has taken a step back from a possible presidential bid.
His high-profile gun control effort will put pressure on Democratic and Republican lawmakers and candidates to decide whether they would support an effort that would establish nationwide restrictions on guns, including in states. where resistance to new restrictions runs deep.
Biden has faced increased pressure to respond to a seemingly endless series of mass shootings. There have been more than 200 to date this year, including a shooting at a high school graduation in Richmond this week.
Newsom presented his amendment on NBC’s “Today” show
Residents leave flowers and comfort each other at a memorial outside the Star Ballroom Dance Studio in Monterey Park, California. Several people were killed at the ballroom dance studio late as the community began Lunar New Year celebrations
Vice President Kamala Harris lays flowers at a makeshift memorial at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio in Monterey Park, California on January 25, 2023
People work at one of the crime scenes, following a mass shooting at two locations in Half Moon Bay, California in January
The White House responded by highlighting Biden’s repeated calls for congressional action, including his call to renew the ban on assault weapons like the AR-15, which has been the weapon of choice in shootings. mass in schools, hospitals and workplaces.
Biden himself has said 2nd Amendment gun protections are not unlimited, as he did in 2021 while announcing a series of administrative actions that did not require congressional approval.
“But no amendment – no amendment to the Constitution is absolute. You can’t shout the crowd – you can’t [yell] “fire” in a crowded movie theater and call it freedom of speech. Right from the start, you couldn’t own any weapon you wanted to own. From the beginning of the existence of the Second Amendment, certain people were not allowed to have weapons. So the idea is just weird to suggest that some of the things we’re recommending are unconstitutional,’ Biden said.
Last June, Biden signed the first gun safety legislation in decades after the mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 children and two adults dead.
It included incentives for state “red flag” laws and extensive background checks for 18- to 21-year-olds, and was the product of tense negotiations between Republicans and Democrats. But that stopped short of Biden’s broader goals of new gun restrictions.
