Gov. Gavin Newsom Officially Calls for Convention to Change US Constitution
California Gov. Gavin Newsom is eyeing a change to the United States Constitution.
The state’s legislature on Thursday approved a resolution in support of Newsom’s call for a 28th Constitutional amendment, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The amendment would enshrine a list of Democratic gun-control policy priorities into federal law.
NEW: California just became the first state in the nation to officially propose an Amendment to the United States Constitution to end our nation’s gun violence crisis.
Time to enshrine 4 widely supported gun safety freedoms —
1) Raising the minimum age to purchase a gun to 21…
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) September 15, 2023
California is requesting a Constitutional convention to enshrine the amendment. For the amendment to be considered, two-thirds of state legislatures would have to vote in favor of a convention, according to the Times.
The proposed “Right to Safety Amendment” would limit legal gun ownership to adults 21 and older, enact universal federal background checks on gun sales, create a mandatory “reasonable waiting period” for gun purchases, and ban the purchase of many forms of semiautomatic rifles.
Newsom started touting the idea behind the amendment earlier this summer.
When people ask why I am introducing a Constitutional Amendment on gun safety this is why.
Not only has Congress stalled for YEARS on passing common sense reforms — judges across the country are tearing down laws that Americans overwhelmingly support. Laws that keep us SAFE and…
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) September 9, 2023
The governor claims the new amendment would co-exist with the Second Amendment despite the proposed amendment’s changes to the American legal understanding of gun ownership.
“The Right to Safety Amendment would preserve the integrity of the Second Amendment, while enshrining in our Constitution commonsense safety provisions that are supported overwhelmingly by the American people,” the progressive governor said in a news release.
“In the face of decades of Congressional inaction and unelected judges that are putting Americans in danger, it is time for citizens to stand up for common sense to protect us against the uniquely American epidemic of gun violence.”
The prospects of the planned amendment eventually being enshrined into law are slim.
Three-fourths of state legislatures need to approve any amendment to the Constitution before it becomes law, and Republicans control a majority of state houses.
Many of the amendment’s provisions already are law in California, but that state experienced the most mass shootings in the nation between 1982 and August of this year, according to Statista. However, the nation’s most populous state had the eighth-lowest gun-death rate among the 50 states in 2021, according to Giffords Law Center.
We have the toughest gun laws in America. Yet California has the most mass shootings. pic.twitter.com/tQT3znE2fA
— KDugan1850 (@KDugan1850) August 24, 2023
California’s Assembly passed Newsom’s proposal via a 51-14 tally on Thursday, with several Democrats declining to vote, according to the Los Angeles Times.
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