California’s governor signed several new gun control measures, expanding the state’s restrictions on gun ownership and introducing new protections for survivors of domestic violence.
California already has some of the strictest gun laws in the US. The new laws signed by Gavin Newsom on Tuesday will further limit who can own a gun, allow the court to consider stalking and animal cruelty as grounds to restrict access to firearms, and prevent the proliferation of “ghost guns”. The laws also increase protections for domestic violence survivors.
“California won’t wait until the next school shooting or mass shooting to act,” the Democratic governor said in a statement. “In the absence of congressional action, our state is once again leading the way by strengthening our nation-leading gun laws.”
Under the new laws, a judge can consider stalking, acts of animal cruelty or threats of violence as evidence for a gun violence restraining order. A person who has a misdemeanor charge dismissed because they were found to be mentally incompetent will also be prohibited from possessing a gun. Current laws only apply such restrictions to cases involving felony charges.
Another law targets ghost guns by requiring law enforcement agencies to prohibit their contracted vendors from selling guns meant to be destroyed. The measure received bipartisan support from the state legislature.
The new laws also aim at providing more protections for domestic violence survivors. There will be fewer exceptions for police officers to continue carrying a gun if they were perpetrators of domestic violence. Law enforcement is also required to take away firearms from offenders.
Newsom also signed legislation banning fake gunfire and fake blood from active-shooter drills in California’s public schools.
The California state legislature, which is controlled by Democrats, has advanced some of the strictest gun laws in the country, but many have not survived court challenges.
Newsom has positioned himself as a leader on gun control while he considers the national political stage. He has called for and signed a variety of bills, including measures targeting ghost guns that are harder for law enforcement to trace, raising taxes on guns and ammunition to pay for education, and banning people from carrying firearms in most public places.
Last year, he kickstarted a campaign calling for a constitutional amendment that would enshrine safety measures that are supported by most Americans but haven’t been enacted by Congress and some Republican-led states. The proposed amendment includes raising the federal age to buy a gun from 18 to 21, banning so-called assault weapons, and mandating universal background checks and a waiting period between the purchase of a gun and its delivery. The proposal has gained little traction.
