California Gov. Gavin Newsom remains determined to ride gun control all the way to the White House in 2028 — or (shhh!) in 2024 — but the problem is that he can’t call it that.
Polls show that Americans aren’t very satisfied with gun control laws, but the reasons are mixed. The number of those who think the laws are too lax has been on a long-term decline and had fallen from a whopping 78% in 1992 down to 57% in 2020. And that was before all those mostly peaceful riots got Americans buying guns in record-shattering numbers. The percentage of Americans who think gun control laws should be less strict has been increasing over the long term — nearly doubling from 17% in ’92 to 32% in 2020.
But those numbers don’t tell the whole story.
Bill Clinton’s Democrats lost control of the House and Senate in 1994, in large part because of their so-called assault weapons ban. It expired ten years later and nobody, Democrats included, ever made a serious effort to revive it. Maybe that’s because — no matter what we tell pollsters about our support for stricter gun laws — nearly half of all American homes have at least one firearm.
And that’s just the 45% of respondents who would admit to owning a gun. If some pollster called to ask me about my guns, I’d politely tell them to shove off.
Except for the “polite” part.
Presidentish Joe Biden ran for election in 2020 promising more gun control, going so far (and so briefly) as to say he’d put Texas gun control freak Beta [sic] O’Rourke in charge of helping him outlaw semiautomatic rifles. And yet… despite Biden’s fellow Democrats controlling both the House and Senate for two full years, Biden never made a big gun control push — and quietly let Beta wither on the vine back in Texas.
It’s a losing issue, and Biden (or his handlers) understands this.
Nevertheless, Newsom went public back in June with his 28th Amendment that would “implement ‘common sense’ gun control measures nationwide,” as I reported for you at the time:
Newsom’s 28th Amendment, if adopted, would raise the minimum age to purchase a firearm from 18 to 21; mandate universal background checks; institute a “reasonable” waiting period for all purchases; and ban so-called assault weapons. In addition, it would authorize Congress, state governments, and even local governments to impose even stricter measures. Under the 28th Amendment, I guess Sacramento could legalize a state Gestapo to take every California resident’s guns away and that would be totally kosher.
What’s reasonable? I suppose that’s up to the courts to decide. What’s an assault weapon? State governments have tried again and again to define it, and sometimes comically failed.
So the 2nd Amendment would still be there in the Constitution. But like the 18th Amendment outlawing the sale, production, or transportation of alcohol was superseded by the 21st, ending Prohibition, the 2nd would be completely gutted by Gavin’s 28th.
Curiously, I still can’t find the actual text of Newsom’s 28th Amendment anywhere online — what are you hiding, pal?
Aside from the text, Newsom is now hiding his massive gun control behind some Newspeak doublethink worthy of George Orwell’s Winston Smith himself.
In a since-edited-and-revised tweet on Tuesday morning, instead of saying “gun control,” Newsom used the phrase “Gun safety freedoms.”
You’ll be free to not buy “assault rifles.” You’ll be free to wait for some extended period to receive the firearms Newsom has decided you’re free to buy. You’ll be free to buy a firearm at 21 instead of an unfree 18. You’ll be free to endure more intrusive… er, “detailed” …background checks.
That’s gun safety freedom, baby!
When I went back to the original tweet — the one I’d copied and pasted “Gun safety freedom” from — I found the phrase was missing. It’s been replaced with the even more innocuous-seeming “Right to Safety.” Curious about the switcharoo, I did a search for the phrase and discovered that Newsom had used it in his original press release on June 8.
That right there is the slippery nature of Newspeak. Even I, an experienced detector of governmental BS and doublethink, failed to notice that pernicious phrase the first time around. And that’s even while writing an entire column about it at the time.
Keep your eyes and ears open for Newspeak, comrades — only you can save the culture and the language from their would-be destroyers like Gavin Newsom.
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