The National Rifle Association (NRA) hit back at California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposal for a 28th Amendment that would increase gun control.
Newsom, a Democrat, proposed a 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution on Thursday “to enshrine fundamental, broadly supported gun safety measures into law.” The NRA was quick to take him to task.
“Newsom’s latest publicly stunt once again shows that his unhinged contempt for the right to self-defense has no bounds,” the NRA said in a statement to Fox News. “California is a beacon for violence because of Newsom’s embrace of policies that champion the criminal and penalize the law-abiding. That is why the majority of Americans rightfully reject his California-style gun control.”
Newsom’s office, in announcing the amendment, claimed that it would keep Second Amendment rights “unchanged,” and that it would regulate weapons while “respecting America’s gun-owning tradition.”
The proposed amendment would raise the federal minimum age to purchase a firearm from 18 to 21, mandate universal background checks “to prevent truly dangerous people from purchasing a gun that could be used in a crime,” institute a reasonable waiting period for all gun purchases and bar “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,” the California governor’s office said.
The National Rifle Association hit back against California Gov. Gavin Newsom called for a 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, decrying the proposal as a “publicity stunt.” (STEFANI REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)
One method of amending the Constitution is for two-thirds of the states to propose it in what is known as an Article V Convention or amendatory convention. Three-quarters of state legislatures or conventions in each state must then ratify the amendment.