A split county Board of Supervisors failed Tuesday to pass a resolution to back Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposal for a 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which would harden federal gun laws by adding restrictions to gun ownership.
Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer introduced the resolution to support the “Right to Safety Amendment,” which calls for raising the minimum age to buy a gun from 18 to 21, mandating background checks before buying a gun, instituting a waiting period for all gun purchases and banning assault rifles.
Lawson-Remer, who has championed several gun-safety regulations, said the proposed amendment contains “very common sense gun-measures.”
“I don’t think we can imagine that one step forward or one action is going to, on its own, be able to address the rising tide of gun violence in this country. But we know we have to do everything we possibly can,” she said.
Supervisor Lawson-Remer hosts her “Gun Violence Reduction Summit” at the County Administration Center on Sept. 29, 2023.
(Alejandro Tamayo/The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Tuesday’s 2-2 vote went along party lines, with “yes” votes from Lawson-Remer and Supervisor Nora Vargas, who are Democrats. Supervisors Jim Desmond and Joel Anderson, who are Republicans, voted against the proposal.
Desmond said the gun-violence problem is mental illness, not a need to curb access to guns.
“This is just more laws on top of laws on top of laws are just not the answer,” Desmond said. “Most of the deaths by guns are irrational acts. They’re not rational acts. And guns are not violent. People are violent.”
He pointed to a report the county released in June — The Gun Violence Community Needs Assessment Final Report — which looked at gun-violence numbers in the region and included recommended strategies to curb gun violence. The data showed that over a recent five-year stretch, more than 70 percent of the county’s gun deaths were suicide.
“I don’t think we have a gun problem. We’ve got a mental health problem,” Desmond said.
Michael Schwartz, the director of San Diego County Gun Owners, a political action committee, argued against the resolution and said the idea that Newsom’s proposal would not gut Second Amendment rights is “completely and totally false and untrue.”
He said the proposed federal change would prevent people from being able to defend themselves, and that raising the purchase age from 18 to 21 years old “is simply taking away the rights of adults under the age of 21.”
One of the speakers who called in to voice his support for the resolution pointed to the first few words in the Second Amendment, which guarantees the right to keep and bear arms. “A well-regulated militia does not mean that any rando off the streets can have an arsenal,” he said.
The split vote was not a surprise. In July, a month after the assessment report findings were released, the 2-2 split board failed to accept its recommendations, including giving away free gun locks to ensure safe weapons storage. That vote came a day after a 3-year-old boy accidentally shot and killed his 1-year-old sister in the family’s Fallbrook home. Authorities said the handgun had not been safely stored.
In recent years, the board had been moving toward hardening gun laws. In 2022, it passed an ordinance to ban people from possessing ghost guns — which have no serial number and are untraceable — and to require all gun owners to keep their weapons locked up or locked away.
That vote was 3-2, when then-Supervisor Nathan Fletcher chaired the board. He resigned his District 4 seat earlier this year amid allegations of sexual misconduct — allegations he has denied. His seat will be filled in a special election Nov. 7.
With Tuesday’s tie, the recommendation to back Newsom’s 28th Amendment proposal can be brought back to the board unless the author — Lawson-Remer — pulls it. The new supervisor will likely be seated by early December, when the board has its last meeting of this year.
Newsom’s Right to Safety amendment comes as a series of rulings — some by the same San Diego federal judge — knocked down some California gun laws.
Last week, U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez in San Diego declared the state’s ban on assault weapons unconstitutional. It was the second time he has made such a finding.
Last month, Benitez struck down — also for the second time — a California law banning people from possessing firearm magazines that can hold more than 10 rounds.
And last year, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a New York state requirement that people who want a permit to carry a concealed weapon show that they have good cause to be allowed to do so. California had a similar requirement.
After that decision, California passed a law barring people from carrying guns in several places, including playgrounds, libraries, zoos, amusement parks, hospitals and houses of worship. That law is set to go into effect in January. The California Rifle and Pistol Association has already filed a legal challenge to block it.
