By: Anthony Morelli
This could be a disaster for Gavin Newsom’s administration.
He has been viciously anti-gun since becoming governor.
But some of his most beloved gun laws could soon come off the books.
Despite his recent efforts to appear more moderate than he has in the past, Gavin Newsom is still one of the most liberal governors in America, especially on the gun issue.
He has been very aggressive in pursuing gun control measures, even though there are millions of gun owners in California affected by these decisions.
Now that Trump is in office, however, there is speculation that he could remove the restrictions on so-called “ghost guns.”
If he does so, it would completely change the laws in California, which are heavily geared towards criminalizing people who own these types of “untraceable” guns.
This could change everything for Gavin Newsom and take away one of the biggest metaphorical weapons that he has in his arsenal to enforce his liberal agenda.
It could ruin the gun control that he has worked so hard for during his time as governor and leave him facing an uncertain future with Trump in office.
“The Supreme Court’s ruling upholding the Biden administration’s clampdown on ‘ghost guns,’ the self-built, largely untraceable firearms used in an increasing number of deadly shootings, is likely to be undone by President Donald Trump. But California has its own law banning possession and sale of ghost gun kits and parts, though state laws are harder to enforce than nationwide restrictions.
“State officials say ghost guns have accounted for 25% to 50% of the firearms found at California crime scenes in recent years, and a federal report found that 65% of all ghost guns found by officers in 2020 were in California. The state Legislature prohibited their possession and sale in 2022, and last year three gun manufacturers that had sold the weapons since the law took effect agreed to pay the state $675,000 in civil penalties.”
Gavin Newsom is adamantly in favor of these type of laws, but he may not be able to stop Trump from repealing them.
This would leave him quite helpless despite his powerful position as governor of the largest state in America.
The article continues, “The Supreme Court, which has struck down other gun-control laws, rejected a challenge by gunmakers to the regulations in a 7-2 ruling last Wednesday. Justice Neil Gorsuch, a Trump appointee, said in the majority opinion that the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms’ authority to regulate the firearms industry includes placing restrictions on parts that can be assembled into firearms.”
Just because the Supreme Court said the guns can be regulated doesn’t mean they have to be regulated, and Trump may be on the verge of deciding to undo these regulations.
This would put Newsom and other Democrat governors in a very tough spot.
Their anti-gun base will be upset if they don’t take action, but there might be very little they can do to undo this decision by the new administration.