Gavin Newsom is on another crusade that has nothing to do with running California.
However, he’s using his Democrat-dominated California as a vehicle to push it.
In a tweet posted to Newsom’s account yesterday, the governor of the Golden State declared:
“CA has officially introduced a US Constitutional Amendment to end the gun violence epidemic in this nation. The American people want action. Congress has refused. It’s up to states to step in.
The Right to Safety will enshrine 4 gun safety freedoms: 1) Raising the age to purchase a gun to 21 2) Universal background checks 3) A waiting period for gun purchases 4) Banning civilian purchases of assault weapons.”
I assumed states could not override Article V of the Constitution, which places the responsibility of introducing and ratifying a Constitutional Amendment in the hands of Congress, not a uni-party state and certainly not its governor.
However, I am not a Constitutional law expert.
There is another, lesser-known way to amend the Constitution. Two-thirds of states can petition Congress for a convention, at which amendments may be proposed. Those amendments would then need to be ratified by three-quarters of the states to become law. Since the first convention in 1787, the constitutional convention option for amending the Constitution has never been exercised.
This is the path that supporters of the ERA (Equal Rights Amendment) have pursued for decades. It is the avenue Governor Newsom is pursuing.
Most Constitutional scholars have said the governor’s effort is “essentially impossible.”
Newsom is doing nothing more than virtue signaling, aiming to win over voters with an emotional plea, pulling at the heartstrings of his traditional base – well-to-do liberal women – in an attempt to garner attention and support for a potential presidential bid.
Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch ….
While Newsom is pushing his gun control bill across the country, crime is soaring out of control in the state he supposedly governs.
A recently uncovered letter from the Department of Health and Human Services in California revealed that the organization requested hundreds of employees to work from home due to the increasing crime rate.
According to the August 4th memo obtained by the San Francisco Chronicle, the department recommended that employees work remotely “for the foreseeable future.”
The notice went out to workers who are employed at the Federal Building in downtown San Francisco, also formally known as the “Speaker Nancy Pelosi Federal Building,” a familiar drug hotspot with dealers often peddling drugs near or across the street from the building, the Chronicle reported.
Two men were charged in May on suspicion of carrying out drug deals in full view of surveillance cameras from the office building, per a June press release from the US attorney’s office.
This blatant disregard for the law has infected the entire coast of California.
Crime Soars in SoCal
Dozens of masked suspects have run out of stores in Century City, Canoga Park, Glendale – all cities within Los Angeles County – and other Southern California communities with armfuls of stolen merchandise, sometimes worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Ex-candidate for mayor of Los Angeles, and mega retail real estate developer, Rick Caruso said, “We’ve gotta get our elected officials to change some laws, enforce the laws we have and hold people accountable – especially these criminals that are doing it over and over again.”
One of Caruso’s properties, the Americana at Glendale, last week fell victim to what are now being called “flash mob” robberies, defined by police as robberies that “involve a large, coordinated group of individuals simultaneously rushing into the store, overwhelming staff and taking it over.”
“The suspects grab as much merchandise as possible before fleeing in multiple vehicles,” police added.
Reportedly, $300,000 in merchandise was stolen from Yves Saint Laurent store in broad daylight while bystanders helplessly watched.
A video that went viral over the weekend showed a similar incident at the Nordstrom store in a mall just on the other side of the affluent area of Topanga Canyon (Canoga Park). More than 30 people ran out of the store with over $300,000 worth of merchandise.
As I type this, a friend of mine, new to the area from Oregon, sent me a text. “My welcome to California gift was getting my new trailer stolen along with one of my motorcycles … you Californians sure know how to welcome a guy!”
Unlike him, I am not as good-natured about these things. He responded to my disgust with “First world problems, right?” I replied it’s questionable if California can be considered first world anymore.
It may be for an M.I.A. governor who is more concerned about running a shadow campaign for president, but for those he purports to serve, it’s becoming a wasteland of crime and degradation.
Author Expertise
Jennifer Galardi is the politics and culture editor and opinion writer for 19FortyFive.com. She has a Master’s in Public Policy from Pepperdine University and produces and hosts the podcast Connection with conversations that address health, culture, politics, and policy. In a previous life, she wrote for publications in the health, fitness, and nutrition space. In addition, her pieces have been published in the Epoch Times and Pepperdine Policy Review. You can follow her on Instagram and Twitter.
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