“In the last 72 hours”, he posted to Facebook yesterday, “68 people have been killed and 129 people have been injured due to gun violence in America.”CBS and the Associated Press report that the Lieutenant Governor (and eager 2018 CA gubernatorial candidate) is in the process of proposing a 2016 gun control ballot initiative”.
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– Eliminate the stockpile of now-banned large-capacity magazines with 11 rounds or more: Owners would be required to sell them to a licensed firearms dealer, take them out of state or turn them in to law enforcement to be destroyed. Ammunition dealers would need to conduct a background check at the point of sale for all ammunition, and dealers would need a license similar to those required to sell firearms.
Gov. Gavin Newsom plans to launch today a statewide ballot campaign to require ammunition buyers to undergo instant background checks as gun-control advocates increasingly expand their focus beyond guns to ammo. State law already bans manufacturing or selling magazines that hold more than 10 rounds.
Polls have shown California voters are generally more supportive of restricting access to guns than voters in other states. Just earlier this month, Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill that banned the carry of firearms on school campuses in the state. Newsom hopes that California voters, sickened by the unbroken cycle of mass shootings in a country that deserves better, will stand with him to strengthen state gun laws.
Voters would decide Newsom’s measure two years before his own bid for governor, but it’s possible a conservative backlash against it could affect down-ticket races in swing districts around the state. “And if you believe in something and think it’s the right thing to do, I think you’ve got an obligation to do it”. “They can’t repeal the Second Amendment, so they’re trying to chip away our rights until there is nothing left”, she said. Newsom made his announcement in San Francisco near the site of a 1993 gun massacre that helped spur federal restrictions on assault weapons.
Even in a Democrat-dominated state like California, the NRA wields outsized influence in the state Capitol, he said; going straight to the ballot might blunt that power.
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Josh Richman covers politics.
