Gavin Newsom wants a 28th amendment to the US Constitution to restrict access to guns

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 Democrat’s plan would leave the 2nd Amendment unchanged and “respect” America’s gun ownership tradition.

But he demanded “constitutional protections with common sense and gun safety measures that Democrats, Republicans, independent voters and gun owners overwhelmingly support.”

It would include “universal background checks, raising the age for buying firearms to 21, establishing a waiting period for buying firearms, and banning the purchase of assault weapons by civilians”.

These are all hot political topics that have divided Congress and state lawmakers alike. They have failed to exonerate Congress, where Republicans have successfully filibusted gun control measures in the past.

Last June, while under Democratic control, the House passed a gun package to raise the age for certain gun purchases, limit the size of gun magazines, and codify “bump stock” regulations. It died in the Senate.

A new constitutional amendment must be approved by two-thirds of Congress or applied for by two-thirds of the states.

Courts have shot down many legislative gun remedies. Last year, the Supreme Court struck down a restriction in New York that restricted people from carrying concealed firearms in public, ruling people had the right to carry for self-defense.

That won’t be the end of Newom’s proposed remedies. “In addition, the 28th Amendment will affirm that Congress, states and local governments can enact additional, prudent gun safety regulations that save lives,” its release said.

Newsom is a prominent figure in his party who backed out of a possible presidential candidate.

His high-profile gun control efforts will pressure Democratic and Republican lawmakers and candidates to see whether they would support an effort to enact nationwide gun restrictions, including states where resistance to new restrictions is strong.

Biden is under increasing pressure to respond to a seemingly endless series of mass shootings. There have been over 200 so far this year, including a shooting at a high school graduation ceremony in Richmond this week.

Newsom pitched his amendment to NBC’s “Today” show

Residents leave flowers and comfort each other at a memorial outside the Star Ballroom Dance Studio in Monterey Park, CA. Several people were killed at the ballroom dance studio late as the community began celebrating the Lunar New Year

Vice President Kamala Harris leaves 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, after a mass shooting at two locations in Half Moon Bay, California in January

The White House has responded by pointing to Biden’s repeated calls for action from Congress, including his call for a ban on assault weapons such as the AR-15, the weapon of choice in mass shootings in schools, hospitals and workplaces.

Biden himself has said that the gun protections of the 2nd Amendment are not unlimited, as he did in 2021 when he announced a series of administrative measures that did not require congressional approval.

‘But no amendment – no amendment to the Constitution is absolute. You can’t crowd shout – you can’t [yell] “fire” in a packed movie theater and call it freedom of speech. From the very beginning, you couldn’t own any weapon you wanted. From the very beginning of the Second Amendment, certain people were not allowed to have guns. So the idea is just bizarre to suggest that some of the things we’re recommending are against the Constitution,” Biden said.

Last June, Biden signed into law the first gun safety bill in decades after the mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, that killed 19 children and two adults.

It included incentives for state “red flag” laws and extensive background checks for 18-21, and was the product of tense negotiations between Republicans and Democrats. But it stopped at Biden’s broader goals of new gun restrictions.