CA Announces Suite Of Gun-Restricting Bills, Newsom Slams Abbott

CALIFORNIA — Less than 24 hours after a mass shooting killed 19 children and two adults at an elementary school in Texas, Gov. Gavin Newsom and state Democratic leaders pledged to expedite and help pass a new suite of bills to reduce gun violence.

California already has some of the toughest laws restricting firearms in the country. But Newsom announced a new collection of 12 restrictive gun bills Wednesday, following the deadliest shooting at a K-12 school in a decade.

"The perversion of a Second Amendment that begins around well-regulated gun policy, we've completely lost our senses and lost touch with that reality, and we need to change that reality, and we have that capacity to do so in the actions that we will be advancing in this state," Newsom said at news conference Wednesday.

"California leads this national conversation. When California moves, other states move in the same direction," he said.

Newsom also took sharp aim at Republicans, certain judges and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott for their gun policies during a year that's seen more mass shootings nationwide than there have been days in the year so far.

In California alone, 26 mass shootings have been reported this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive. Nationwide, 213 mass shootings have been reported in 2022, according to the archive.

"Gov. Abbott just name-checked the state of California. I would caution from doing that," Newsom said, referencing the firearm death rate in Texas reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Texas's firearm death rate is 14.2 per 100,000 people; California's is 8.5 per 100,000 people, according to the CDC.

Newsom's fervor places him at the forefront of one of the hottest issues in the nation.

Legislators have authored 12 different bills to tackle the issue; one already passed the state Senate on a 24-10 vote and is headed for the Assembly.

That bill would allow private citizens to sue gunmakers, a move that would hinder the ability to sell assault weapons in the state.

"I look forward to signing that bill," Newsom said.

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The legislation borrows tactics from a controversial approach to outlawing most abortions in Texas, in which residents are allowed to sue abortion clinics to halt procedures.

Newsom said he thought the Texas abortion law was wrong and lambasted the Supreme Court's decision in December to uphold it.

READ MORE: Texas School Shooting: Gunman Killed 19 Kids, 2 Teachers In Same Class

"But they opened up the door. They set the tone, tenor, the rules. And either we can be on the defense complaining about it, or we can play by those rules. We are going to play by those rules," Newsom said previously.

Another measure, SB-906, would require school officials to investigate potential threats of an act of violence or mass shooting. The bill would task officials with searching a student's book bag, car or school locker.

Other bills would toughen laws on advertising guns to minors and cracking down on untraceable ghost guns in California.

Newsom said he hoped to put urgency on as many restrictive gun measures as possible to be passed and signed into law by July 1.

Leaders have been at odds about whether assault weapons should be regulated or how they should be tracked. On Tuesday, Sen. Andreas Borgeas (R-Fresno) announced that he favored requiring serial numbers on all firearms but added that he is against private enforcement.

Last year, U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez overturned a decades-old law that banned the sale and manufacture of many assault-style guns. Benitez said the law was unconstitutional and compared the AR-15 rifle to a Swiss Army knife.

Newsom was enraged by the ruling and was inspired to spur more legislation to limit gun violence.

READ MORE: Federal Judge Overturns CA's Ban On Assault Weapons

"Ten years ago we were in an eerily similar situation, grieving the killing of 20 children and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary," Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) told reporters on Wednesday. "But here we are mourning the murder of children again. Nothing has changed."

READ MORE: Texas Shooting Prompts CA Senate To Pass Bill Targeting Assault Guns