Gun violence is a real and serious problem that raises real and serious questions.
In a country with more than 300 million people and even more guns than those in circulation, there is no single, easy solution to the problem.
There are several different and overlapping factors that fuel the problem of gun violence. Ease of access to guns (including illegal guns) is one, but there are also complicated issues like mental health and perennial problems like gang violence and domestic violence.
Delving into this very real and truly troubling issue, Governor Gavin Newsom, who on Thursday called for a 28th Amendment to the US Constitution to “end the gun violence crisis in the United States.”
Newsom’s idea is to leave the Second Amendment in place and instead use the 28th Amendment to install four measures:
“Increasing the federal minimum age to purchase a firearm from 18 to 21; Requiring universal background checks to prevent truly dangerous people from purchasing a gun that could be used in a crime; Establishing a reasonable waiting period for all gun purchases; and Prohibit the civilian purchase of assault weapons that serve no other purpose than to kill as many people as possible in a short period of time, weapons of war that the founders of the our nation never anticipated.”
Coupled with his claim that this amendment would “end America’s gun violence crisis,” it’s a bit underwhelming, actually.
Even just a moment’s thought would lead to the realization that, no, this wouldn’t actually “end America’s gun violence crisis,” and it probably wouldn’t do much.
The biggest tell-tale sign that this is purely a gimmick is Newsom’s insistence that a ban on the arbitrarily defined category of “assault weapons” be included. Most shotsand the majority mass shootings, involves guns. Few gun murders involve rifles of any kind. And then, of course, there’s the issue of compliance. Newsom’s proposed ban would only affect law-abiding people and would not apply to people who would only acquire assault weapons illegally.
The other ideas would probably be popularly accepted. But none of them, individually or together, seem to live up to the claim that they would “end America’s gun violence crisis.” They’re just there to cover Newsom’s usual complaints about “assault weapons.”
In other words, this is just an even more dressed down Newsom rant against “assault weapons” than usual. But that’s all.
Probably the most ridiculously obsequious quote in Newsom’s announcement comes from Sen. Aisha Wahab. “A man of action, Governor Gavin Newsom has the backbone to do something about the gun fetish culture surrounding weapons of war and address the unrelenting problem of gun violence and mass shootings,” he said Wahab. Phew.
No. Newsom is just a politician with the attention span of a goldfish and the narcissism of Donald Trump. Newsom can’t see anything of substance and just wants the headlines to make him look like he’s doing anything. If Newsom is still stuck on the “assault weapons ban” meme, he’s not serious about ending gun violence.
You can contact Sal Rodriguez at salrodriguez@scng.com
