U.S.A. — “Today Governor Gavin Newsom proposed a 28th Amendment to the United States Constitution to enshrine fundamental, broadly supported gun safety measures into law,” a press release from his office announced Thursday. “While leaving the 2nd Amendment unchanged and respecting America’s gun-owning tradition, the Governor’s proposal guarantees common sense constitutional protections and gun safety measures that Democrats, Republicans, independent voters, and gun owners overwhelmingly support – including universal background checks, raising the firearm purchase age to 21, instituting a firearm purchase waiting period, and barring the civilian purchase of assault weapons.”
Leave it to this gaslighting gubernatorial gasbag to lie right out of the starting gate and assert that registration/confiscation-enabling prior restraints, denial of rights to citizens recognized by U.S. Code as members of the “unorganized militia,” imposed delays on exercising of rights, and prohibition of in common use firearms suitable for the common defense, all comply with “shall not be infringed.”
This whole 28th Amendment nonsense got its start with propagandist Michael Moore, who almost a year ago wrote (Why NRA managers didn’t follow Association Bylaws and expel this clear violator when I first petitioned them over 20 years ago is something only they can answer.):
“The inalienable right of a free people to be kept safe from gun violence and the fear thereof must not be infringed and shall be protected by the Congress and the States. This Amendment thus repeals and replaces the Second Amendment.”
It then goes on with a total of eight sections of assorted outrages like mandatory licensing and registration, proof “for the few who can demonstrate a special need for personal protection,” a vetting process where authorities anonymously interview anyone who ever knew you (including your exes and enemies), annual classes and written tests, a minimum age of 25 with annual license renewal, approved firearms lists, bans on semiautos or anything holding more than six “bullets,” bans on “plastic”/printed guns, ammunition regulation…
Moore also would require everyone to possess psychic powers:
“No weapons of any kind whose sole intention is the premeditated elimination of human life are considered legal.”
Police will receive special scrutiny for “violent or racist behavior,” and while that may sound attractive to civil libertarians interested in stemming authoritarian abuses, Moore’s version would apply Antifa “standards” to determine what’s “racist.” And he includes an ultimatum at the end, aptly and ironically titled “Section 8”:
“Persons already owning any of the above banned firearms, and who do not fall into the legal groups of restricted firearms owners, will have one month from the ratification of this Amendment to turn in their firearms for destruction by local law enforcement.”
What could any good armed American say except “No, your move”…?
And just to prove that it’s still not enough—because it’s never enough for totalitarians—Moore includes an expansion plan for more:
“Congress may create future restrictions as this amendment specifically does not grant any American the ‘right’ to own any weapon.”
The Second Amendment doesn’t “grant” rights, either, as anyone but an ignoramus or a liar would know. As two different Supreme Courts have acknowledged:
“The very text of the Second Amendment implicitly recognizes the pre-existence of the right and declares only that it “shall not be infringed.” As we said in United States v. Cruikshank, 92 U. S. 542, 553 (1876), “[t]his is not a right granted by the Constitution. Neither is it in any manner dependent upon that instrument for its existence. The Second amendment declares that it shall not be infringed …”
While Newson’s 28th Amendment may not appear as draconian on the surface as Moore’s, his, too, includes the provision for unlimited expansion:
“Additionally, the 28th Amendment will affirm Congress, states, and local governments can enact additional common-sense gun safety regulations that save lives.”
In other words, they’ll be able to enact any damn ban they want to, up to and including a total prohibition on “civilians” owning guns—which is exactly what the manipulated, ignorant “white women’s” demonstration in Colorado was demanding, again citing a 28th Amendment as the vehicle to make it happen. And Newsom has a plan to expedite matters, calling for “a convention to propose amendments to the United States Constitution, also known as an Article V Convention or amendatory convention.”
Some of us have been trying to throw cold water on that idea for years now, and are frankly baffled that it keeps getting offered as a good idea by some ostensibly well-intentioned people on “our side.” It’s a horrible idea, as Publius Huldah and a “Myth vs. Fact” chart demonstrate:
“Convention supporters assure us that the States will have control over Delegates to an Article V convention. That is not true… When James Madison and two former US Supreme Court Justices have warned that delegates to an Article V convention can’t be controlled, it is wicked to dismiss their warnings as ‘fear mongering’.”
This will no doubt result in some strong objections from those still not swayed. Perhaps pointing out that Newsom is weaponizing it to gut the Second Amendment may diminish their influence among people still on the fence.
The bottom line is Newsom is lying through his teeth using the old Democrat ploy that “We can still respect the Second Amendment while infringing the hell out of it, and turning it into revokable privileges we can withhold at will.” That’s what he and they are really saying.
If you think about it in terms of the Founders’ understanding of what was “necessary to the security of a free State,” the wrong people are on trial in Washington for sedition.
About David Codrea:
David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.
