California Gov. Goes on Profane Rant, Blames Trump for Gilroy Shooting
Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom blamed President Donald Trump and the “morally bankrupt” Republican Party for a shooting Sunday at a festival in Gilroy, California.
“It’s just sickening … the leadership today that just turns a blind eye and won’t do a d— thing to address these issues,” Newsom said Monday, according to The Sacramento Bee. “What’s godd—ed absent in this country right now is moral authority.”
Standing outside the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose, Newsom spoke with reporters about the “culture of gun violence” he said is perpetuated by the GOP.
Newsom’s remarks struck a tone of righteous indignation, but the governor offered little in the way of effective solutions.
“California’s doing its part, but Jesus, these guys, the folks in the White House have been supporting the kinds of policies that roll back the work that we’re doing,” he said.
“It keeps happening, over and over and over again, on their d—ed watch,” the governor said.
Newsom touted his state’s work to “get rid of large-capacity magazines, to address the issues that we’re trying to advance on background checks on ammunition,” USA Today reported.
The suspected festival shooter legally obtained an AK-47 variant — Gilroy officials described it as an “assault-type rifle” — in Nevada and used it to kill three people and injure 12 others.
Part of the problem, according to Newsom, is that such weapons are legal at all.
“You have a right to bear arms but not weapons of godd—ed mass destruction,” Newsom said. “You need these d— things for hunting? Give me a break.”
While acknowledging the rights guaranteed by the Second Amendment, Newsom provided no parameters for which kinds of arms the Constitution protects.
Which firearms fit the description of “weapons of mass destruction”?
What exactly is an “assault-type rifle” weapon?
Newsom did not offer an explanation.
The governor’s lack of specificity was not the only concerning aspect of his speech. Newsom seemed to imply that only guns that could be used for hunting were protected by the Second Amendment, a claim supported nowhere in the amendment’s text.
As an elected official, Newsom is right to seek preventative measures to stop mass shootings. But his solutions should be clear, effective and — above all — constitutional.
If his comments on Monday are any indication, Newsom’s ideas are none of those things.
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