Massacre elicits Dems’ outrage
Newsom blames gun culture; GOP hit by Feinstein
Democratic leaders in California and Washington joined Thursday in a renewed call for national action to stem the flood of mass shootings, hours after an attacker with a handgun killed 12 people in a Southern California bar.
The massacre and others like it can’t continue to be seen as just something that happens, Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom said Thursday in San Francisco.
“It’s a gun culture,” he said. “You can’t go to a bar or a nightclub? You can’t go to church or a synagogue? It’s insane, and that’s the only way to describe it. It’s been normalized.”
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, DCalif., who saw a landmark assault weapons ban she pushed through Congress in 1994 expire 10 years later because of Republican opposition to a renewal, called out her GOP colleagues.
“We don’t know all the de-
tails of this latest shooting, but we do know how to start to reduce the frequency of these murders,” she said. “What we’re missing is Republican willpower to get it done.”
Without action by elected officials, she added, the nation will see “more bodies lying at the foot of failed Republican leadership.”
Newsom, two days after his election, was at St. Anthony Dining Room in the Tenderloin, where he had planned to talk about putting together his administration and serve lunch to needy people. But when a 28year-old Marine veteran walked into the Borderline Bar and Grill in the Ventura County city of Thousand Oaks late Wednesday and opened fire, his discussion topic changed.
Newsom led the push for a 2016 state gun control initiative that requires people to undergo background checks before buying ammunition, bars possession of high-capacity magazines, and bans people from bringing in ammunition from outside California. He said too many politicians are satisfied not to even try to deal with mass shootings.
“The response is not just prayers,” he said. “The response can’t just be excuses. The response sure as hell can’t be more guns” — the idea advanced by President Trump and others that law-abiding, armed citizens can thwart attacks in schools, churches and other public places.
“This doesn’t happen anywhere else on the planet, and we can’t let people forget that,” Newsom said.
In a pair of tweets after the Thousand Oaks killings, Trump said he had been briefed on the shootings and praised the actions of the sheriff ’s sergeant killed responding to the attack, Ron Helus.
Newsom called for the National Rifle Association to be “held to account for their rhetoric and their actions.” He noted that the NRA has gone to court to challenge his initiative’s ban on high-capacity magazines, such as the one the Thousand Oaks shooter reportedly used.
“The irony of that is not lost on me,” he said.
He admitted that he doesn’t have much sympathy for gun advocates who argue that they are unfairly linked to every mass-shooter attack.
Newsom said that he “absolutely and unequivocally” supports the Second Amendment and the right of people to bear arms. “But I also think people have a right not to get a phone call at 2 a.m., just praying that their daughter has survived a mass shooting,” he said.
California Democrats in Congress were quick to call for action to make it harder for people to get the type of weapons that can be used to kill a large number of people quickly.
“The American people deserve real action to end the daily epidemic of gun violence that is stealing the lives of our children on campuses, in places of worship and on our streets,” said House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco, who may be in position next year to advance gun legislation as the chamber’s speaker.
“House Democrats will fight to pass bipartisan, commonsense solutions to prevent gun violence in communities across the country,” Pelosi said.
In a tweet, Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., said, “Leaders in Congress must act — not some day, but now.”
There are plenty of things that can be done quickly, Feinstein said.
“A renewed ban on military style assault weapons ... is ready for a vote. A bill to ban high-capacity ammunition magazines is ready for a vote. A bill to ban bump stocks, which Republicans agree should be illegal, is ready for a vote,” Feinstein said in a statement. “We could hold these votes next week and have bills on the president’s desk by Thanksgiving. Instead, Republicans refuse to take any action at all.”
While federal action might not stop all gun violence, Republicans’ failure to act is “cowardice of record proportions,” the senator added.
“What we’re lacking is intestinal fortitude from congressional Republicans and President Trump to say enough is enough,” Feinstein said. Unless they can stand up to the NRA and the gun lobby, she added, “we’ll see more Thousand Oaks, more bodies lying at the foot of failed Republican leadership.”
California isn’t going to wait for action from Congress that may never come, Newsom said.
“In the absence of them doing their job, California will do its job. I have all the confidence in the world,” he said. “We have an extraordinary Legislature ... and a governor who wants to raise the bar.”
John Wildermuth is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jwildermuth@ sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jfwildermuth