‘It’s essentially impossible.’ Long road ahead for Gov. Newsom’s gun restriction amendment

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced his proposal Thursday to pursue a Twenty-Eighth Amendment that would enshrine four “common sense” gun reform measures in the U.S. Constitution.

The amendment would raise the minimum age to purchase a gun to 21 (“if you can’t buy a beer, you shouldn’t be able to buy a gun,” he said in a video announcing his proposal), require universal background checks and a “reasonable waiting period” on gun purchases, as well as ban civilian purchases of assault weapons. The proposal would not repeal the 2nd Amendment.

But exactly how feasible is Newsom’s ambitious plan?

“It’s not technically impossible,” said UC Davis constitutional law professor Carlton Larson.

“But it’s essentially impossible.”

There are two ways to amend the U.S. Constitution: the first, which has been successful 27 times in American history, is that two-thirds of both Houses of Congress pass the amendment.

The second, which has been successful zero times, is when two-thirds of state legislatures call for a constitutional convention. It’s not especially rare for a Governor to call for such a convention — Florida Gov. and 2024 presidential candidate Ron DeSantis did so earlier this year in effort to set term limits for members of Congress.

But actually garnering two-thirds of state legislatures, or 33 states, is the “essentially impossible” part of the process.

“You don’t have 33 other state legislatures that would be on board with (Newsom’s) proposal,” Larson said. “We just don’t get Constitutional amendments without strong bipartisan support.”

Given the history of the 27 amendments that have been ratified in the last 237 years, Larson said, it’s easy to see why Newsom’s proposal is going to be such an uphill battle.

Of the existing 27, the first 10 make up the Bill of Rights. Three of the remaining 17 took the Civil War to ratify. The 27th took 200 years. Some of the others in between “were really very minor, technical things.”

Even the Equal Rights Amendment, which both Houses of Congress approved in the 1970s and which President Richard Nixon endorsed, has been ratified by only 38 states and has yet to be enshrined in the Constitution.

“I believe our Constitution is the most difficult to amend of any constitution in the world,” Larson said.

The constitutional convention is not called by the governor of any given state, but by members of the state legislature. Assemblyman Reggie Jones-Sawyer and state Sen. Aisha Wahab both announced Thursday that they would support Newsom’s proposal.

“It is time for Democrats, Republicans, and Independents to move past thoughts and prayers, and actually do something about the gun fetish culture around weapons of war,” Wahab said in a statement Thursday.

Legislators on the opposite side of the aisle were unsurprisingly critical of Newsom’s announcement.

Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher called the proposal “a poorly though out, attention-seeking stunt.”

“If Newsom is this disinterested in leading California,” he said, “he should let the Lieutenant Governor take over so he’ll be free to chase the national spotlight full-time.”

Despite the Democratic majority in the California Legislature, Republicans actually control almost 55% of all state legislative seats nationally.

But that’s not to say Newsom’s proposal is purely symbolic, or lacks potential for serious change in the gun control debate.

“Newsom understands that this isn’t going to actually happen,” Larson said. “But he’s not just issuing a press release. He’s actually trying to use the tool that the constitution sets out for popular deliberation about constitutional change ... he wants to start the conversation and get this issue in front of the American people ... but ultimately, it’s doomed.”