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California Governor Gavin Newsom has called on states to join him to adopt a 28th Amendment to the US Constitution that would enshrine constitutional protections and gun safety measures while preserving the Second Amendment’s right to bear arms.
His proposal – which would require a convention of the states, with two-thirds of all state legislatures joining in support – would raise the federal minimum age to purchase a firearm to 21, mandate universal background checks and a “reasonable” waiting period for buying a gun, and prohibit all civilian purchases 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,” according to the governor’s office.
“Our ability to make a more perfect union is literally written into the Constitution,” according to a statement from the Democratic governor of the nation’s most-populous state.
“The 28th Amendment will enshrine in the Constitution common sense gun safety measures that Democrats, Republicans, Independents, and gun owners overwhelmingly support – while leaving the [Second Amendment] unchanged and respecting America’s gun-owning tradition,” he added.
It’s a long-shot effort in a nation dominated by Republican-led state legislatures and a resistance to adopting gun safety measures widely supported by most Americans. A federal ban on so-called assault weapons expired in 2004, and congressional Republicans have refused to revive it, even as public massacres and mass shootings with AR-style rifles have surged.
More than 18,000 people have died from gun violence, including suicide, in 2023, according to the Gun Violence Archive. There have been at least 279 mass shootings, in which at least four people were killed or wounded, as of 8 June.
The nation is on pace to hit a record number of mass killings in 2023, with an average of one every week.
Last year, the governor signed a series of gun safety bills into law, strengthening the state’s position with some of the strongest gun control laws in the country, in the wake of the US Supreme Court’s landmark decision in a New York case that now challenges state laws against carrying guns in public.
