Newsom floats fake effort to call convention of states to gut 2nd Amendment. The questions is, why?
Principles of proposed 28th Amendment broadly supported
"SACRAMENTO – Today Governor Gavin Newsom has proposed a 28th Amendment to the United States Constitution to enshrine fundamental, broadly supported gun safety measures into law. While leaving the 2nd Amendment unchanged and respecting America’s gun-owning tradition, the Governor’s proposal guarantees common sense constitutional protections and gun safety measures that Democrats, Republicans, independent voters, and gun owners overwhelmingly support – including universal background checks, raising the firearm purchase age to 21, instituting a firearm purchase waiting period, and barring the civilian purchase of assault weapons." To read more.
He has decided to go national
People are fleeing California in droves because the state becomes even more unlivable under Gov. Gavin Newsom. It has “lost more than 352,000 residents between April 2020 and January 2022, according to California Department of Finance statistics.” Read article here.
Rampant crime, illegal immigration on steroids, high taxes, homelessness, and assaults on liberty are a few of the reasons for this exodus. Somehow, with all this on his plate, Gov. Newsom found himself with too much time on his hands.
Gun violence is increasing in CA even with extant draconian efforts to infringe lawful firearm possession. Experts explain why California is still rife with gun violence despite some of the most stringent gun laws in the country.
Gov. Newsom has no compunction about doubling down on stupid, so rather than merely further restricting firearm possession in his state he has decided to go national and advocate an Article V “convention of states” to gut your right to keep and bear arms. Why stop at harassing Californians when you can have the whole nation imprecating your name?
So it is interesting that Newsom has decided to take the Article V route, one that we here at Convention of States are well acquainted with. It takes two thirds of the states to call for a convention of states to amend the Constitution without the involvement of congress. Any amendments produced by the convention then require three fourths of the states to ratify them. It’s a daunting effort, and you can learn all about it here.
Since right now there are twenty-seven states that allow the permit-less concealed carrying of firearms, there is little chance of a convention being called by two thirds of the states (to say nothing of “permitting” what the 2nd Amendment guarantees), to infringe on our 2A rights.
So what is Newsom up to? He couldn’t pass a ninth grade home schoolers’ test on the Constitution, and is rumored to be illiterate, or dyslexic, or both, so where on his reading list was there anything that would give him the notion that there is such a thing as an Article V convention?
Also, Newsom cannot possibly hope that Americans will vote to disarm themselves on his recommendation, so we are free to speculate as to why he would float such a hopeless campaign in real life. Come to think of it, that word “campaign” is a two-edged sword, referring not only to his effort to pass the 28th Amendment to the Constitution, but possibly to a run for the White House. To do that he needs to get lots of attention, so we need to put up with his “28th Amendment” project.
Americans owned the best firearms in the world in 1789
From Governor Newsom's release:
"The 28th Amendment will permanently enshrine four broadly supported gun safety principles into the U.S. Constitution:
Raising the federal minimum age to purchase a firearm from 18 to 21;
Mandating universal background checks to prevent truly dangerous people from purchasing a gun that could be used in a crime;
Instituting a reasonable waiting period for all gun purchases; and
Barring civilian purchase of assault weapons that serve no other purpose than to kill as many people as possible in a short amount of time – weapons of war our nation’s founders never foresaw."
I follow 2nd Amendment issues closely and don’t recall anything remotely resembling these “gun safety principles” being “broadly supported” outside of the Democrat National Committee. So:
A twenty year-old could join the army but not own a .22;
Criminals don't subject themselves to background checks when buying guns in motel rooms;
An undefined “reasonable waiting period” could be months long;
Americans owned the best firearms in the world in 1789.
This response to the bullet points took longer to type than to think of.
This discussion also raises the question of whether an amendment to the Constitution could be ruled unconstitutional, since this effort does not repeal the 2nd Amendment. The Constitution and Bill of Rights cannot include contradictory language, however. In other words, we can’t have an amendment that declares that our right to be armed may not be infringed, then have another amendment that infringes on that right.
Nothing in politics happens by accident
Gavin Newsom’s motivation for being used in this manner is, no doubt, his White House aspiration, and others agree. It’s clearly a stunt for attention as Joe Biden continues deteriorating and the Democrat presidential hopefuls begin cueing.
I have no more proof for this than Newsom has for his poll results in favor of his proposed amendment, but I think I’m within the bounds of reason when I opine that, apart from being motivated by visions of the White House dancing in his head, Newsom was put up to this stunt by someone trying to discredit the idea of a convention of states. It adds static to an already noisy situation regarding the wisdom of holding an Article V convention to amend the Constitution.
Some on the Right think that it’s rational to oppose the Constitution’s Article V convention in the name of protecting the Constitution. This gives “conservatives” opposed to the very idea of an Article V convention the opportunity to claim that this is the kind of mischief we’d get into if we opened the Article V Pandora’s Box and yada yada, almost as if this “28th Amendment” project were a tactic to discredit the idea.
Nothing in politics happens by accident, or without reason. My opinion: Newsom’s laughable effort in this regard is designed to further muddy the waters on the Article V convention, and it is timed for his eventual presidential campaign announcement.
To learn more about Convention of States
Convention of States’ part in the battle for our nation’s soul is advocating an Article V convention of states to the legislatures of the fifty United States to amend the Constitution. This method bypasses our corrupt congress to reduce the scope and cost of the federal government to constitutional levels, enact a balanced budget amendment, and term limits for elected officials. Please sign our petition and look around on our web site. I recommend clicking the tab labeled Resources at the top. We’ll keep fighting for you until you join us, then we’ll fight together.
