Gavin Newsom’s new campaign for a 28th Amendment is the most significant political concept in the United States at present.
The media coverage following the California governor’s proposal to enshrine four popular gun control measures in a new federal constitutional amendment suggests otherwise.
Instead, political opponents derided Newsom’s proposal as a waste of time at best, and a dereliction of duty at worst. Reporters referred to it as a simple strategy in his rhetorical and legal conflict with conservative states.
Republicans deemed it a diversion from his duties as governor of California. According to the San Jose Mercury News, it is practically impossible to amend the Constitution, so editorialists deemed the proposal absurd.
In reality, these objections are far more absurd than Newsom’s amendment. The governor is not only addressing the nation’s proclivity to violence. He is challenging Constitutional defects that hinder his ability to govern and keep Californians secure.
Newsom’s gun control amendment is the most important idea in American politics.
It is difficult to imagine a policy that the United States requires more than constitutional controls on firearms. The United States is inundated in firearms, with Americans owning nearly half of the world’s 857 million civilian-held firearms.
And gun ownership and permissive gun laws have spawned a never-ending epidemic of gun violence. The United States has a gun homicide rate that is more than 25 times higher than other high-income nations, and a gun suicide rate that is more than 10 times higher.
And the epidemic is worsening, particularly among young individuals. In 2020, gun violence surpassed automobile accidents as the leading cause of mortality among U.S. children and adolescents.
Instead of attempting to reverse this epidemic, the federal government and numerous state governments are aggravating it by reducing regulations. The U.S. Supreme Court and lower-level reactionary justices have reinterpreted the Constitution to invalidate local and state gun control laws.
One of these states is California, which has lower gun violence rates than more pro-gun states because of laws under assault, such as a 10-day waiting period for most firearm purchases.
In this context, Newsom’s decision to pursue the 28th Amendment is a job requirement, not a political choice. The governor is responsible for preventing the deaths of Californians. And he is expected to defend laws that safeguard public safety. Both are threatened.
As Assemblymember Reggie Jones-Sawyer, who is collaborating with the governor to draft the amendment, has stated, “We cannot stand passively by while courts undo our work and diminish the ability of our legislature to keep Californians secure. This resolution calls on other states to protect some of the most effective methods for reducing gun violence.
