Gavin Newsom Aims to Take Action on Gun Control

 

JAYLEEN LAM Staff Writer

Gavin Newsom, California’s new governor, began tightening gun control regulations in his first term. In his first state budget plan, released a few days after his inauguration in January, Newsom suggested to fund an extra $5.6 million for gun seizures from people with criminal records or mental illnesses, which is 50 percent more than former governor Jerry Brown proposed to pay in his budget.

Underfunding in the gun seizure program in the past has resulted in firearms being purchased by 10,000 people, who later got diagnosed with a mental illness. Newsom proposed to redirect money to the California Department of Justice Bureau of Firearms and the Firearms Violence Research Center at University of California, Davis. “We have expanded Democratic majority in both houses,” state Assemblyman Jesse Gabriel said. “We have a bright and ambitious new governor with a real track record on this issue who wants to make this a priority.”

Newsom’s campaign for gun control may also alter statewide school security. In 2016, Governor Brown vetoed an expansion of the ‘red flag’ law that would have allowed non-relatives, such as education employees and mental health professionals, to suggest confiscation of one’s firearms if the suspect is considered to be violent or suicidal. Nikola Cruz, the young man accused in the 2018 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, had a history of mental health issues and access to weapons, like the assault rifle he used to kill 17 individuals. “Parkland would never have happened if Florida had a red flag law,” Linda Beigel Schulman, the mother of the late M.S.D. teacher and coach Scott Beigel, said.

In California alone, 189 gun violence restraining orders were granted – 177 of which were filed by law enforcement officers – in 2016 and 2017, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Many citizens had no knowledge of this red flag law, and gun control activists hope that this expansion of the law will be granted under Newsom. However, critics of his changes claim that he is merely garnering support for the proposals he advertises on his campaign. For example, gun rights activists justified Brown’s veto of the red flag law by saying it denied gun owners their right to own a firearm under the Second Amendment. “Gavin Newsom has demonstrated he has little to no understanding of firearms and firearms policy,” Craig DeLuz, a representative of the Firearms Policy Coalition, said. “For him this is a [public relations] issue, meaning he will probably sign whatever is in front of him.”

While Gavin Newsom is quickly becoming a favorite of gun safety activists and an enemy of gun rights campaigners, his policy changes have the potential to change student safety.