California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) recently claimed he is “not anti-gun at all” upon being gifted a SIG Sauer P365 X-Macro by former Navy SEAL Shawn Ryan on the veteran’s podcast.
“The last thing people would expect is that I respect this gift. I’m not anti-gun at all,” said Newsom. “I’m for just some gun-safe, common sense. I’m challenged by large-capacity magazine clips in urban centers, weapons of war, sometimes outgunning the police, but otherwise, man, people have the right to bear arms, and I got no ideological opposition to that at all.”
The California governor’s comments stand in direct contrast to the policies he has pursued and the comments he has made over the years, the overwhelming majority of which are, in fact, anti-gun. Further, the things he is “challenged by” are all “anti-gun” despite their deliberately twisted and mislabeled names and phrases.
In 2023, Newsom announced that he wanted to add a 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would, among other things, implement “universal” background checks, raise the minimum age to purchase a firearm to 21, ban “assault weapons” and more.
Newsom also went after gun shows and gun owners’ data in 2021 and has signed countless anti-gun laws throughout his tenure as governor, but that’s not all. As mayor of San Francisco, he supported Proposition H in 2005, which would have mandated the confiscation of all privately owned handguns within the city’s limits, as well as rendered their purchase, acquisition or transfer as unlawful. This was also supported by then-San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris (D).
Newsom’s attempt to portray himself as pro-gun follows in the footsteps of other politicians who attempted to do the same despite years of evidence pointing to the contrary. Just last year, Kamala Harris and Tim Walz tried this tactic while running for the presidency and vice presidency. Harris unconvincingly spoke about her “Glock” while Walz attempted to cast himself as a hunter even as he had trouble loading his shotgun.
Harris even promised that she was “in favor of the Second Amendment” after having spent years trying to prevent the U.S. Supreme Court from recognizing it. Thankfully, voters saw through their ruse and once again elected a president who is defending the right to keep and bear arms.
