California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) Wants California Voters To Take On The NRA

(cross-posting from LBN)

Source: Huffington Post

California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) proposed a ballot measure on Thursday that would bolster the state's gun laws and give California's voters a chance to do what the state legislature hasn't.

Newsom's call comes two weeks after a gunman killed nine other people at a community college in Oregon, again prompting anger and frustration nationwide over the lack of action to prevent mass shootings.

The proposed measure, written in conjunction with the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, has five components: banning most possession of high-capacity magazines, mandating background checks on ammunition sales, requiring individuals to report lost or stolen firearms, ordering the state to share data with the federal government on who is prohibited from owning guns, and strengthening existing laws aimed at keeping guns out of the wrong hands.

Newsom, who is running for governor in 2018, unveiled his proposal at a press conference in San Francisco, near the site of the 1993 massacre at 101 California Street. That shooting, in which a gunman killed eight people and wounded six others at a law firm before killing himself, sparked a national conversation on gun control that eventually led to the passage of a federal assault weapons ban in 1994. (The law expired in 2004 and has not been renewed by Congress.)

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/gavin-newsom-guns_561ff791e4b028dd7ea72cb2