SACRAMENTO — Governor Gavin Newsom issued the following statement after a U.S. District Court struck down California’s law banning the possession of large-capacity firearm magazines:
“Unsurprisingly, Judge Benitez chose to issue this radical decision on the same day President Biden announced his new Office of Gun Violence Prevention. As a reminder, this is the same judge who used Gun Violence Awareness Day to strike down California’s assault weapons ban — comparing the AR-15 to a Swiss Army knife.
“Judge Benitez is not even pretending anymore. This is politics, pure and simple.
“It’s time to wake up. Unless we enshrine a Right to Safety in the Constitution, we are at the mercy of ideologues like Judge Benitez. All of our gun safety laws that are proven to save lives are at risk. It doesn’t matter what laws we pass. It doesn’t matter what the voters decide. Concealed carry. Banning weapons of war. Reasonable waiting periods. Background checks. The idealogues are coming for all of them.
“This is exactly why I’ve called for a Constitutional amendment, and this is why I’ll keep fighting to defend our right to protect ourselves from gun violence.”
California’s Gun Safety Laws Work →
- California is ranked #1 for gun safety
- The state’s gun death rate is 43% lower than the rest of the U.S.
- Gun laws helped save 19,000 Californians in the last decade
- If other states shared California’s gun death rate, 140,000 Americans would still be alive today
- Since the early 1990s, California has cut its gun death rate in half
- Over half of crime guns traced by authorities were purchased in other states