Gavin Newsom has seized on the last two shootings in California to lambast the Second Amendment. The governor of the golden state denounced that it is "becoming a suicide pact" and insisted again that more restrictive gun control laws are needed. Newsom accused the GOP of being part of the problem of gun attacks because they "bowed down to the gun industry" in opposing such regulations.
In an interview on the CBS Evening News, the governor of California acknowledged that the last two massacres perpetrated by gunmen in the state do not surprise him. "Nothing about this is surprising. Everything about this is infuriating," he noted during his conversation with Nora O'Donnell. The Californian leader then criticized the Second Amendment for "becoming a suicide pact."
"Nothing about this is surprising. Everything about this is infuriating," the California Gov. Gavin Newsom told @NorahODonnell. https://t.co/y0wqsdHUfj
— CBS Evening News (@CBSEveningNews) January 24, 2023
4 of the 10 deadliest shootings since 2020 in California
California is the state with the strictest gun control laws. However, with last Monday's, 4 of the 10 deadliest shootings in the past two years has occurred there. However, Newsom preferred to use a more favorable statistic for his argument: the rate of gun deaths. "California's 37% lower than the death rate of the rest of the nation, and yet, with all that evidence, no one on the other side seems to give a damn." the governor added.
"This Second Amendment's becoming a suicide pact, it feels like," Gov. Gavin Newsom tells @NorahODonnell in Monterey Park. "California's 37% lower than the death rate of the rest of the nation, and yet, with all that evidence, no one on the other side seems to give a damn." pic.twitter.com/tSz7oawXtR
— CBS Evening News (@CBSEveningNews) January 24, 2023
Newsom doesn't reduce death toll
The detail is that this is the state with the largest population, so the percentages will always be lower with respect to states with a smaller number of inhabitants. Counting the Half Moon Bay shooting, the death toll from gun attacks totals 34 since 2020 in California. A far cry from the 21 killed in Texas (Uvalde, 2022) shooting, which is the state with the next highest number of people killed in this type of incident. In addition, it is also the case that the golden state is the only one in which there has been more than one assault resulting in a high number of deaths during this period of time.
However, Newsom made two points about the culprits: mental illness and the Republican Party. In a harsh tweet, the governor lamented that, despite the fact that "every country struggles with mental illness," the percentage of homicides by firearm is 26 times higher in the U.S. than among its allies. To complete the publication, Newsom directly accused conservative politicians of being the cause of these figures. "The difference is how the GOP have bowed to the gun industry. The difference is how easy it is to access guns and high capacity magazines in our country."
Every country struggles with mental illness.
But the USA has a gun homicide rate 26 TIMES HIGHER than our peers.
The difference is how the @GOP have bowed down to the gun industry. The difference is how easy it is to access to guns and high capacity magazines in our country.
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) January 24, 2023
Blame it on mental illness and the GOP
In California, these magazines are prohibited by law. However, Los Angeles County police noted that the gun used by the Monterey Park shooter carried such a magazine. When questioned during the interview, Newsom threw out the question: "That's going to happen. You´ve got to enforce laws. Things fall through the cracks, but it doesn't mean you give up."
Finally, after being questioned about his outburst on the Second Amendment, noting the high number of people who comply with it and legally own firearms, Newsom qualified his comments by adding:
I have great respect. I have no ideological opposition with someone reasonably and responsibly owning firearms, getting background checks and being trained and making sure their locked so their kid doesn't accidentally shoot themselves or a loved one. Absolutely not, Never suggested that. That's what they immediately do: 'He wants to take away your guns.' I just want to take weapons of war that are illegal on the streets of California and should be illegal across the United States."
Large capacity magazines do not belong on our streets. pic.twitter.com/kvYXFQBOQs
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) January 24, 2023
