After 40 mass shootings were recorded throughout the country in the first 26 days of the year, 5 of them in California: one in Monterey Park with a result of 12 dead and 9 injured, and another in Half Moon Bay with 7 murdered and 1 injured, the governor Gavin Newsom He described the Second Amendment to the US Constitution as a "suicide pact" and called on congressmen to put letters in the matter to get assault rifles out of the hands of thousands of people.
"A well-regulated Militia being necessary for the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed," punctuate the twenty-seven words of America's Second Amendment, one that undoubtedly made sense in 1791. when it was approved.
However, more than 230 years later, the very conception of this amendment that is part of the American Bill of Rights, has left thousands of people without a family member, friend, partner or child. Reason why the governor of California launched himself against those politicians who have not made a real reform in the use of weapons, which are used by perpetrators in mass shootings.
“The number one cause of death for children last year was related to guns and ?Congress? didn't do a damn thing. Congress is sitting on your ass. There are politicians who are not banning assault rifles, but the word "Latinx." Are they not even serious? What is happening in this country?" Newsom said in an interview.
"Republicans busy banning the word 'Latinx' and AP black history courses instead of the weapons of war that are killing our children. His priorities speak for themselves," he added through a tweet.
Last Tuesday, at a press conference from San Mateo County, where the city of Half Moon Bay belongs and where on Monday there was a shooting at two agricultural farms in which 7 people died at the hands of a man 66 years and one more was injured, Governor Newsom noted that what we are seeing "is a complete and utter failure of common sense."
"The stories are devastating. Because the stories are not just about gunshot wounds or the loss of someone dear, they are an infinite number of issues. It's the person in a hospital bed who has a shattered leg and just had a bar put on his leg, who says “I have to get out of here because I can't pay my hospital bills. I have to get out of here because I can't lose my job tomorrow. Farm workers who don't have their paycheck and don't have money and can't even buy food tonight," he stressed.
Added to the terrible situation is the problem of the immigration policy that reigns in the country, where thousands of farm workers, and those who maintain that many have food on their tables, today do not have complete protection.
"The complete and abject failure of our immigration policies yesterday and today exposed a complete and abject failure of common sense on gun safety and immigration policies."
With a difficult start to the year for the golden state, where 32 trillion gallons of water fell in 22 days, facing crises of drought and flooding, and now two mass shootings in two days, Newsom said he was more likely to vent his frustrations with which you don't see happening at the national level, particularly in Congress.
We need the federal government to do its job! This is from everyone. We choose this. Is it our decision to live in these conditions? We can sit and pray or we can look in the mirror and say: this is the price, I suppose, of? fill in the blank, freedom? Freedom from what? Why does your child only do 6 or 7 exercises to hide under the desk each year, instead of 2 or 3? Freedom for what? To be totally vulnerable anywhere in a crowd? To Dance with a loved one on New Year's Eve?
"The question is how much longer will we accept this?"
a shot in the foot
The statements made by Newsom about how the Second Amendment is becoming a "suicide pact", the NRA? National Rifle Association?, an American organization whose purpose is to defend the right to own weapons for both personal defense and recreational activities, and whose beginnings date back to 1871, while walking through Monterey Park, where 12 people died and 9 were injured, they were described as hypocrites.
«Gavin Newsom called the Second Amendment a ?suicide pact? while flanked by at least four armed guards. That is the definition of hypocrisy," the organization wrote through its Twitter account.
The governor was not silent and responded: “People were shot to death at a dance club and their workplace — and THIS is their response. I look forward to the day when your garbage organization becomes obsolete."
Despite the fact that the organization Gun Violence Archive reports that there have been 3,050 recorded deaths by firearm so far this year, several as part of one of the 40 recorded mass shootings and 6 mass murders, just this week the NRA sued to remove Illinois' ban on semi-automatic weapons. Yes, the kind that are often used in those types of crimes.
"It seems like the Second Amendment is turning into a suicide pact," Newsom said in the CBS Evening News interview. "California's firearms death rate is 37 percent lower than the rest of the nation, and yet with all that evidence, no one on the other side seems to give a damn."
california against guns
California has some of the strictest gun laws in the nation, and advocacy groups regularly rank the state among the best in the nation for gun safety. The state has mandatory waiting periods and background checks to purchase a firearm. Military-style weapons are also prohibited.
In addition to the approval of several laws for the control of arms, at the end of July of last year one more was added, Gavin Newsom, promulgated a law that allows citizens to initiate civil actions against any person who manufactures, distributes, transports or imports weapons assault or ghost pistols, which are prohibited in the state. However, without reform at the federal level, little or nothing will change.
You may be interested in: Events Planned to Remember the Victims of the Half Moon Bay Shooting
