California's Newsom says gender must be a part of national gun debate

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California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, said Monday that gender must be a part of the national discussion on how to reduce gun violence since most culprits in mass shootings are male.

Newsom held an emergency meeting Monday in Sacramento with leading school, health and safety officials following deadly mass shootings in Gilroy, Calif., El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio over the past two weeks that killed more than 30.

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"These shootings overwhelmingly — almost exclusively — are males, boys, men. I do think that is missing in the national conversation," Newsom said, according to Politico. "I think that goes deep to the issue of how we raise our boys to be men, goes deeply to values that we tend to hold dear — power, dominance, aggression, over empathy, care and collaboration."

"I want to just introduce that into this debate as we move more tactically to address the issue of early childhood trauma, address the issues of stresses that become mental health issues, that become access to weapons. All of those things," Newsom said.

California has some of the strictest gun laws in the country. A new California law that went into effect in July requires anyone buying ammunition within the state to submit to a background check before purchase at an additional $1 fee, the Sacramento Bee reported. Ammunition dealers must run a buyer’s ID through the state’s Automated Firearms System to see if the individual has been convicted of a felony or has anything else on their record prohibiting the sale.

Newsom said Monday he’ll continue to push for restrictions on gun and ammunition sales outside of the state, calling specifically on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to reconvene the Senate from recess to deliberate gun legislation. He also wants to strengthen California's gun violence restraining order, which prohibits an individual from buying a gun if deemed dangerous to themselves or others, Politico reported.

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On Monday, California Democratic Assemblyman Marc Levine of San Rafael, reintroduced a measure that would impose a $25 tax on the sale of handguns and semi-automatic rifles beginning in January, citing recent “gun terror” in the country. Newsom said he’d consider backing the proposal.