California Governor Gavin Newsom has recently taken to the stage to label the Second Amendment a “suicide pact” in the weeks following a pair of mass shootings that took place within his state.
This past Monday while speaking to Norah O’Donnell with CBS News in the wake of the recent mass shooting which happened in the city of Monterey Park, Newsom was quick to try to spin a tragedy for politics by attacking the constitutionally-protected right to bear arms. He parrotted his previous claims that the U.S. is entirely unique amongst countries around the globe because of the mass shootings seen. He also attempted to use the event as a means to leverage his policies against high-capacity gun magazines by trying to swing in even more restrictions on them.
“The Second Amendment is becoming a suicide pact, it feels like,” exclaimed Newsom. “And that’s the only question the community wants [answered]: how are you going to — what about our kids when they’re going to school? What more can we do? And you know, again, we look at that all the time. I mean, we did another half-dozen gun safety bills last year, we’ll continue to find whatever loopholes we can, we’ll continue to lead the national conversation on gun safety reform.”
“And the data bears out,” claimed Newsom. “It works. It saves lives. California [has a] 37% lower gun death rate than the rest of the nation. And yet, with all that evidence, no one on the other side seems to give a d***. I can’t get anything done in Congress.”
"This Second Amendment's becoming a suicide pact, it feels like," Gov. Gavin Newsom tells @NorahODonnell in Monterey Park. "California's 37% lower than the death rate of the rest of the nation, and yet, with all that evidence, no one on the other side seems to give a damn." pic.twitter.com/tSz7oawXtR
— CBS Evening News (@CBSEveningNews) January 24, 2023
However, Newsom seemed quick to roll things back in regard to his statement at a later point in that very same interview, making the claim that he respects all lawful gun owners. “Yeah, I have great respect,” he chattered. “I have no ideological opposition with someone reasonably and responsibly owning firearms and getting background checks and being trained and making sure they’re locked so their kid doesn’t accidentally shoot themselves or a loved one. Absolutely not. Never suggested that. That’s what they immediately do. ‘He wants to take away your guns.’ I just want to take away weapons of war that are illegal on the streets of California and should be illegal across the United States. I mean, literally, just use common sense.”
Large capacity magazines do not belong on our streets. pic.twitter.com/kvYXFQBOQs
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) January 24, 2023
The governor continued his tired, crowing on about the phenomenon of mass shootings as a uniquely American problem, and took direct aim at all high-capacity magazines. “It’s always a weapon of mass destruction, isn’t it?” exclaimed the governor. “I mean, I get it. We can talk about the anomalous nature of this, and it certainly is. But what is also anomalous is the fact that there’s a pattern here in the United States of America, these mass shootings that don’t exist anywhere else in the world, at least the free world. And maybe that should be the fundamental focus: large-capacity clips. Just insane. There’s no justification. Period. Full stop. It’s just insane. These people are perpetuating lunacy and should be ashamed of themselves.”