Sep. 15, 2023 Updated: Sep. 16, 2023 12:40 p.m. (SFChronicle.com)
Celebrating the Legislature’s swift approval of his proposal to call a U.S. constitutional convention on gun control, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Friday such an extraordinary step was needed because gun advocates have gained control of the nation’s courts.
“The federal courts are now stacked with (Donald) Trump appointees throwing out these common-sense victories,” Newsom told an online gathering of supporters. He cited rulings overturning California laws that set age limits for firearms purchases, prohibited gun advertising that targets minors and banned semiautomatic rifles the state classifies as assault weapons.
He also said the U.S. Supreme Court “perverted” legal standards with its ruling last year that declared a constitutional right to carry firearms in public and overturned a New York law requiring applicants for concealed-carry permits to show a special need for self-defense. In the 6-3 ruling, Justice Clarence Thomas said any law limiting gun possession must be “consistent with this Nation’s historical tradition of firearms regulation,” dating back to the 1790s.
California has a law similar to New York’s, but Newsom is about to sign new legislation that seeks to comply with the ruling while setting new age limits and training requirements for gun purchasers, and banning gun possession in schools, banks and other “sensitive places.”
Gun advocates “know they’ve got the Supreme Court, but what they don’t have is public opinion,” the governor said.
Senate Concurrent Resolution 7, the measure sponsored by Newsom calling for the first U.S. constitutional convention since the Constitution was ratified in 1789, won final approval in the state Assembly on Thursday evening as the 2023 legislative session was ending.
The purpose of SCR7 is to enact new limits on firearms that would override the Supreme Court ruling. They would include requiring gun purchasers to be at least 21 years old, mandating background checks for all gun buyers, including those at gun shows and private sales, requiring a waiting period for purchases and banning assault weapons nationwide.
A convention would be called in the unlikely event that 33 other states passed similar resolutions. And while Newsom says the convention would be limited to the issue of the gun laws he is proposing, some legal commentators have said it would open the door to proposals to rewrite the Constitution on a multitude of issues — race and sex discrimination, taxes, abortion, and limits on LGBTQ rights — that would be difficult or impossible to achieve in Congress.
Newsom did not address those concerns Friday, focusing instead on the devastating effects of gun violence and the need for dramatic action.
“This is not an issue that Congress alone can solve,” he said. By authorizing states to call a convention, the nation’s founders “gave us the power, bottom-up, to change the Constitution. I want to take this over the finish line. … I don’t care how long it takes.”
Reach Bob Egelko: begelko@sfchronicle.com; Twitter: @BobEgelko
Written By Bob Egelko
Bob Egelko has been a reporter since June 1970. He spent 30 years with the Associated Press, covering news, politics and occasionally sports in Los Angeles, San Diego and Sacramento, and legal affairs in San Francisco from 1984 onward. He worked for the San Francisco Examiner for five months in 2000, then joined The Chronicle in November 2000.
His beat includes state and federal courts in California, the Supreme Court and the State Bar. He has a law degree from McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento and is a member of the bar. Coverage has included the passage of Proposition 13 in 1978, the appointment of Rose Bird to the state Supreme Court and her removal by the voters, the death penalty in California and the battles over gay rights and same-sex marriage.
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