BELLEVUE, WA – The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms says California’s new law requiring firearms dealers to provide gun buyers with a pamphlet warning about the dangers of gun ownership amounts to “legislative social bigotry.”
“This new law, AB 1598, is just another effort by anti-gun Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom to discourage Californians from exercising their constitutional right to become gun owners,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “At what point do Californians tell lawmakers in Sacramento they’ve had enough of Democrats’ dishonest demagoguery? Demonizing guns is a deceptive strategy designed to fool people into believing something is being done to prevent violent crime, when the opposite is true.
“Why not force car dealers to provide a pamphlet to each customer, telling them about the dangers of driving,” he wondered. “Owning a car, especially in California, is more dangerous than owning a gun. More people were killed in traffic accidents in 2023, the most recent year for which data is available, than from gunshot wounds that year. But nowhere in the Golden State are car dealers being forced to hand out pamphlets warning motorists that getting behind the wheel is hazardous to their health.
“Why are Gavin Newsom and California lawmakers singling out guns instead of cars,” Gottlieb asked. “After all, gun ownership is protected by the constitution, but owning a car isn’t. If the Democrats who pushed this into law wanted to discourage owning something which is dangerous, they should have studied their own data. According to the Long Beach Press Telegram, the state suffered 4,013 traffic fatalities in 2023 while The Trace said California logged 3,208 gun-related deaths for the same year, the most recent period for which data is available.
“All this proves Gavin Newsom and his Democrat colleagues aren’t really interested in saving lives,” Gottlieb observed. “They’re interested in reducing gun ownership by discouraging people from buying guns, and forcing gun dealers to act as their surrogates in the process. It’s really pathetic.”