On NBC's “Today” show last June, Governor Gavin Newsom announced a proposal that seemed politically impossible from the start: convince two-thirds of America's state legislatures to officially convene a constitutional convention to adopt national gun safety.
Newsom didn't see it that way.
“It's possible because your electorate demands it,” Newsom said when the interviewer pointed out that more than half of the states are controlled by Republicans who generally oppose gun restrictions.
A year later, no other state has joined Newsom's fight.
The failure to advance the gun safety proposal beyond California, including in other Democratic-controlled states, suggests that, at least so far, Newsom's plan was more superficial than substantial.
The governor's speech inspired a round of media coverage last year that raised his national profile as a Democrat trying to do something about mass shootings and other types of gun violence. Newsom pointed to the results of a Fox News poll that found overwhelming voter support for the restrictions.
The gun initiative has given him another chance to reach voters outside of California, broadening his national appeal for a potential future White House run and creating an opportunity to expand his database of political supporters before he runs out. his term as governor in two years. .
However, Newsom still must grapple with stubborn Second Amendment politics. Many lawmakers at the national and state levels are reluctant to take on a powerful gun lobby and risk being accused of trying to dilute the constitutional right to bear arms.
The governor said he expected slow progress, adding that support for a constitutional amendment on gun control could take 20 years to catch on.
“Come on, no one was naïve about it,” Newsom said in a recent interview with The Times. “This has been done before, but not recently. It will have its ups and downs. “It will have its defenders and its setbacks.”
So far, setbacks have been easier to spot.
Newsom's plan would require two-thirds of states to pass resolutions supporting a constitutional convention. Through the convention, new federal gun safety measures would have to be ratified by three-quarters of state legislatures. Newsom is calling for states to pass an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would require universal background checks on gun purchases and raise the minimum age to purchase a firearm from 18 to 21. The governor wants the meeting of the states to also result in a “reasonable waiting” period for all gun purchases and to ban the sale of assault weapons to the public.
California lawmakers passed a resolution in September calling for a constitutional convention to consider the proposal.
The governor and his political advisers began reaching out to other states after the California Legislature acted, hoping to find lawmakers from around the country with compelling personal stories to lead the effort.
Some states have part-time legislatures, which meet only a few months a year or every other year, and lawmakers told Newsom aides that passing a resolution this year was not feasible, an aide to the governor said. In other states, gun control lawmakers had already committed to their 2024 bill packages.
“And others specifically said, 'Not now,' I mean, there are election issues,” Newsom said.
Newsom said he has had “dozens of conversations,” but the governor and his political staff declined to name states or people they have spoken to.
He said he has discussed the constitutional amendment in every state he has visited through his Democracy Campaign, a political action committee he formed to raise money for Democrats and fight Republicans nationally in the 2024 elections.
“So we're talking to legislative leaders in all of those red states,” Newsom said.
Last year, a few weeks after launching his call for the constitutional convention, Newsom went to Idaho to meet with Democrats and fundraising for Biden's re-election through his political action committee.
Democrat Melissa Winthrow, minority leader in the Idaho state Senate, said she never heard from California's governor.
“No, I have not spoken to Governor Newsom,” Winthrow said. “I don't know if he has been in communication with anyone. I have not.”
Winthrow doesn't see how Newsom's proposal has a chance of passing in Idaho.
“This is a red-majority state, probably one of the most conservative in the country, with the strictest abortion bans and so on,” he said. “So we're not going to see any movement to restrict anything with firearms.”
Winthrow said she's not sure she can support Newsom's resolution because if a convention were ever held, her state would be represented by Republicans who would kill any amendment to restrict guns. In California, some Democrats declined to back the measure after legal scholars warned that states could address other issues beyond the scope of Newsom's gun amendment at a constitutional convention.
There are also political realities in states like Idaho, where gun culture is so entrenched that Democrats largely avoid campaigning on the issue. Winthrow has introduced legislation to prevent people convicted of domestic abuse from owning firearms and another bill to prevent convicted pedophiles from owning firearms. Both failed.
He can't imagine a scenario in which Newsom's proposal gains traction.
“There's just no way the state is going to agree to that. It's just not going to happen. As I've described, the political climate here is such that it wouldn't even be on the table,” Winthrow said. “They would laugh.”
Newsom said he knew his proposal might not work well in some GOP-controlled states. But there are no signs that he has taken off in Democratic states either.
Despite Newsom's cooperation with Democratic leaders from other West Coast states in access to abortion and stop climate changeNeither Oregon nor Washington has taken command of their gun control amendment.
“There's been no talk here about doing something similar,” said Aaron Wasser, a spokesman for Washington state Senate Democrats.
Washington House Speaker Laurie Jinkins “has not had any conversations with Governor Newsom on this issue,” her spokeswoman Jen Waldref said.
“This is not a concept that has been considered by the Oregon Legislature,” said Lucas Bezerra, spokesman for Oregon House Democrats.
Newsom did not directly respond to questions about whether a national push to restrict guns could hurt Biden's re-election bid if Republicans responded by saying Democrats want to take away guns. The governor said other issues, such as inflation, the cost of living and the economy, were more important to voters.
Newsom reiterated that his proposal would preserve Americans' right to bear arms and focus strictly on the gun safety that most Americans support. Newsom was inspired by congressional inaction and California's own efforts to pass gun control laws that have been struck down by federal courts.
“This was done very carefully in the context of where things really are and where the American people are in each state,” Newsom said.
Newsom's political adviser said lawmakers in many states are focused on their own elections or this year's presidential race, forcing the governor's team to reevaluate its strategy and schedule.
Newsom's team shifted its focus to building support at the local level this year before ramping up its efforts in 2025.
“Since California passed the amendment last year, the campaign has been building an army of grassroots activists who will support the national right to security in states across the country and work with lawmakers to introduce bills to 2025, when states begin a new legislative session.” said Newsom spokesman Nathan Click.
Click said the campaign has “signed up more than a million Americans to support the right to be safe in their states.” More than 1,500 have completed volunteer training to help in their states and 10,000 volunteers will be trained in early 2025, when the bill's introduction begins, he said.
The Newsom Democracy Campaign, his national political committee, emailed its fundraising list in early May seeking volunteers.
The volunteers' goal outlined in the email was twofold: get voters across the country who will elect Democrats and get the Safeguards Amendment introduced in more states next year.
But the chances of Newsom building a successful movement are slim, because it is very difficult to amend the Constitution, said University of Texas School of Law professor Sanford Levinson.
“He's swimming against the tide in terms of trying to persuade people that a constitutional gun amendment is going to be a very fruitful way to spend their time,” Levinson said.
“No person knowledgeable about contemporary politics could really believe that that proposal is going to take off nationally with other state legislatures.”
Newsom's speech echoes a similar move by the governor of Texas were once made from the opposite end of the political spectrum.
In 2016, Republican Governor Greg Abbott He called for a convention of the states. nine amendments to the United States Constitution. They included a series of conservative goals to limit federal power and require a balanced federal budget, which Abbott detailed in a 92 page plan.
The Texas Legislature approved the resolution next year. But not much happened after that.
“He obviously thought that might give him some political benefit,” Levinson said. “And clearly it wasn't.”
