Gov. Newsom, Democrats Targeting Legal Gun Owners Rather than Felons in New Bill

“Had Senate Bill 2 or its predecessor Senate Bill 918 been in effect it would not have stopped the tragic incidents it claims to, but it would put more Californians in harms way.”

That is what Rick Travis of the California Rifle and Pistol Association told the Globe about Governor Gavin Newsom’s, Attorney General Rob Bonta’s and Senator Anthony Portantino’s (D-La Cañada Flintridge), press conference Wednesday morning announcing a bill aimed at adding restrictions to California’s concealed carry permit requirements and gun ownership.

This is yet another attempt by the California Governor to infringe on the constitutional rights of legal gun owners, while letting felons out of prison early, and ignoring felons with illegal guns.

Noticeably, the 6,000 felons on the California Department of Justice’s Armed and Prohibited Persons Systems (APPS) database, who own or possess illegal firearms, aren’t facing stricter legislation. Shouldn’t state officials including the governor be more concerned about them?

They should but aren’t.

There’s a backlog of 25,000 illegal gun owners in the DOJ’s Armed and Prohibited Persons System. “As of January 1, 2022, the APPS database had 24,509 armed and prohibited persons and 1,130 additional armed and prohibited individuals who were incarcerated,” the APPS website reports.

How many licensed California CCW carriers have committed murder in the last decade?

One. He was convicted of murder and is in prison. How many California felons with illegal weapons have committed murder in the last decade? Too many to count.

The Public Policy Institute of California has reported on the recent dramatic increase in homicides and crimes with guns in the state:

In 2020, California saw a troubling rise of more than 500 homicides, the largest jump in state history since record-keeping began in 1960.

California saw 1,658 homicides in 2019; the number climbed to 2,161 in 2020—an increase of 503 homicides (or 30.3%). Of these deaths, gun homicides jumped by 460 in 2020 (or 40.6%). In other words, the increase in gun deaths account for 91% of the overall jump in homicides.

Gun use was notable in other violent crimes as well. For example, aggravated assaults rose by 8.4%, and assaults with a firearm jumped by 39.2%, And although robberies decreased by 10%, the share of robberies involving a firearm rose from 23.9% of all robberies to 25%.

These homicides, violent crimes and aggravated assaults weren’t committed by CCW permit holders.

Wednesday, Sen. Anthony Portantino (D-La Cañada Flintridge), resurrected a noxious gun control bill he couldn’t get passed last year – a bill restricting concealed carry rights.

Senate Bill 918 by Sen. Portantino, written on behalf of Democratic California Attorney General Rob Bonta, was introduced in anticipation of the June 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in New York Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen. SB 918 wold have created a new issuing process for concealed carry weapons licenses (CCW licenses).

According to Sen. Portantino, SB 918 sought to address the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in the Bruen case wherein it rejected a good cause standard for the issuance of a CCW license.

SB 918 was dead in early August because even Democrats knew it would not pass constitutional muster. But Portantino pulled a fast one and moved it out Assembly Appropriations with 32 pages of 185 new amendments, the Globe reported. SB 918 still did not pass.

Here is why: The AG’s office concludes that the existing statutory requirement “that a public-carry license applicant provide proof of ‘good moral character’ remains constitutional,” and that this requirement isn’t limited to disqualifying felons, certain violent misdemeanants, and the like, UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh wrote at Reason.com about SB 918. “And in particular the AG’s office suggests that people who hold certain ideological viewpoints should be disqualified.”

“This strikes me as clearly unconstitutional under the First Amendment, even apart from the Second amendment,” Volokh continued. “The government can’t restrict ordinary citizens’ actions—much less their constitutionally protected actions—based on the viewpoints that they express.”

Senate Bill 2, the new version of SB 918, seeks to add additional training requirements, increase the minimum age one can purchase a gun to 21, and adds a long list of prohibited places one can carry.

Sen. Portantino said at the press conference, CCW permit holders don’t need a gun to attend sporting events, bars, or to go shopping. He’s decided this.

Meanwhile, Californians prefer the Attorney General do something about all of the early releases of violent offenders with illegal weapons.

Last April, 6 people were killed and 12 were wounded in a mass shooting in downtown Sacramento down the street from the State Capitol. Yet one of the suspects, Smiley Martin, was released from prison early despite being sentenced to a 10-year term for domestic violence and assault with great bodily injury. He was charged with possession of a machine gun and possession of a firearm by a prohibited person (in the AAPS database) after the April mass shooting.

The Globe reported Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg’s reaction to the shooting was to blame guns, as did Governor Gavin Newsom. Both seized the opportunity to call for even stricter gun control laws. It’s a knee-jerk reaction by the left.

Breitbart reported that President Joe Biden also responded to the Sacramento shooting by pushing gun laws the state of California already has in place: “Ban ghost guns. Require background checks for all gun sales. Ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. Repeal gun manufacturers’ immunity from liability,” Biden said.

Breitbart explained:

California already bans ghost guns.

California has required background checks for all gun sales since the 1990s.

California has banned “assault weapons” since the 1990s.

California bans “high capacity” magazines.

Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is pushing to allow private citizens to sue gun makers (which the Legislature passed and he signed into law, but was blocked by a federal judge).

Additionally, California has a red flag law, gun registration requirements, a 10-day waiting period on gun purchases, a “good cause” requirement for concealed carry permit issuance, a ban on campus carry for self-defense, a ban on teachers carrying on K-12 campuses for classroom defense, and a limit on the number of guns law-abiding citizens can buy each month.

California also requires would-be purchasers to pass a background check before acquiring ammunition.

Under Portantino’s SB 2:

“…the [CCW] applicant would be a disqualified person if they, among other things, are reasonably likely to be a danger to self, others, or the community at large, as specified. This bill would add the requirement that the applicant be the recorded owner, with the Department of Justice, of the pistol, revolver, or other firearm capable of being concealed upon the person.”

Portantino removed the good character and good cause requirements because he had to, by law. So now he, the governor and Attorney General are increasing the age and training requirements, and added in “sensitive places” where permit holders cannot carry their guns:

Sports arenas, bars, playgrounds, parks, daycare facilities, schools, pre-schools, shopping centers and malls, courthouses and government buildings, prisons, hospitals, airports – all of the places normal people go.

The press conference appeared to be a precursor for Gov. Newsom for his Presidential 2024 campaign. Because as Sen. Portantino said at the beginning of the press conference, this is one of the most important bills from California, which leads the nation on “gun safety” legislation. This important California CCW regime is “to ensure our laws remain a blueprint to the nation,” Portantino added.

When a reporter asked the governor about 24 year old Gonzalo Carrasco Jr., the Selma police officer just murdered by a convicted felon, and the Fresno County Sheriff said the guy who killed the cop was on probation due to AB 109 (Gov. Jerry Brown’s prison realignment scheme), Newsom got really touchy and said, “She should blame herself. I’m sick and tired of being lectured by her on public safety. She should look in the mirror.”

The Fresno County Sheriff’s office said in a press statement about the police officer’s murder, the killer, “has served time in prison and is currently on probation as part of California’s AB 109 law (prison realignment).”

John Zanoni was elected as Sheriff in June 2022. His predecessor was Sheriff Margaret Mims who retired at the end of the year. The Globe isn’t sure if Newsom was referencing Sheriff Mims or Fresno County District Attorney, Lisa A. Smittcamp, but clearly one of them got under Newsom’s skin.

Gov. Newsom also bristled when a reporter asked him what could be done since domestic violence is no longer a felony in California. Newsom claimed the violence restraining order was supplemented last year, acknowledged that the domestic violence reclassification was under voter-passed Proposition 57, and then said “I can’t comment on this,” as he walked off the stage.

Newsom was a proponent of Proposition 57, shamelessly titled “the Public Safety and Rehabilitation Act,” which now allows nonviolent felons to qualify for early release, and parole boards can now only consider an inmate’s most recent charge, and not their entire history because of this proposition. Notably, Prop. 57 was given its ballot title by then-Attorney General Kamala Harris.

Gov, Newsom has eagerly facilitated the early release program, letting thousands of felons out of California prisons. “California Gov. Gavin Newsom will be letting another 76,000 prisoners out of state prisons – on his own authority through Executive Order – violent crime is spiking in California’s cities,” the Globe reported May 2021. The CDCR expanded “good time credits” without criteria to justify early release of dangerous inmates.

This latest gun control bill flies in the face of Democrats’ soft-on-criminals laws passed and signed into law by the governor – targeting legal gun owners and law abiding citizens rather than felons with illegal guns should be of concern to everyone

Remember, it was just last week Governor Newsom told a CBS reporter that guns are bad, while he was surrounded by his armed security detail.