Assembly Republicans: Questions for Newsom ahead of his gun control announcement

This post was originally published on this site

Governor Newsom is sticking with his MO of deflecting blame for his record on crime with a press conference to announce yet another piece of gun legislation.

As he pushed for even more restrictions on law abiding gun owners, here are some questions we’d love him to answer about his record on public safety.

  • How many murders have been committed by California CCW holders in the last decade?
  • Why is your focus on restricting law-abiding firearm owners rather than criminals who commit gun crimes?
  • You recently signed laws to effectively end sentencing enhancements for gun crimes – what message does that send?
  • There’s a backlog of nearly 25,000 illegal gun owners (10,000+ active cases) in the DOJ’s Armed and Prohibited Persons System – why is your administration focused on new gun laws rather than reducing that backlog?
  • Would the proposal you’re discussing today have prevented any of the mass shootings we’ve seen in recent weeks? If not, why is this your focus?
  • A cartel or gang killed six people in Tulare County recently, including a 10-month old baby, and you have said little, if anything, about it. Similarly, when it became clear that last year’s mass shooting in Sacramento was instigated by gang members, your administration went silent. Why does gang violence get such little attention from your administration relative to its impact on public safety?
  • Previous state budgets have provided substantial dedicated funding for the APPS program. If gun violence is a priority for you, why are you not dedicating any additional funding this year?
  • A similar law in New Jersey to limit concealed carry was found to be unconstitutional – do you have any confidence that this law would hold up in court?

Bottom Line: Another set of restrictions on top of California’s 100+ existing gun laws is not going to make a dent in the wave of violent crime washing over our state. Enforcing our existing laws will. But that’s not as exciting to Democrat primary voters.