California Governor Gavin Newsom attacked both the Supreme Court and Republicans nationwide while holding an AR-15 rifle before pointing it at his own camera operator.
The video opens with Governor Newsom holding an AR-15. He then immediately begins his attack, saying, “To members of the United States Supreme Court and right-wing Republicans around the country: Do you have no common decency, respect, or even common understanding that kids should not have one of these?”
“This is an AR-15, a weapon of war, a weapon of mass destruction,” he says, as he proceeds to turn the barrel of his gun straight towards his camera operator before setting it down.
The rest of the video is heavily focused on marketing tactics used by gun companies. Newson specifically focuses on 2 logos of babies’ skulls with a target in their eyes sucking on pacifiers.
The California Governor then announced his new bill that he would be signing into law that will limit the ways gun companies can market firearms, saying they will no longer be able to “market to our children.”
Newsom also pointed out WEE1 Tactical’s new JR-15 rifle, which is marketed as the children’s version of the AR-15 so they can learn to shoot one with their parents. Their website brags that the JR-15 “also looks, feels, and operates just like Mom and Dad’s gun”.
While children cannot legally buy firearms in any state regardless of marketing tactics, Newsom’s attack on the gun industry is reminiscent of the attack on cigarette companies in the 1990s for using cartoon characters and marketing to children to try and build an early interest in their products.
While the desire to protect children from certain marketing tactics may seem admirable, what’s less admirable is pointing a firearm at an employee like Newsom did. It’s also pretty easy to imagine how much more intensely the left and media would have reacted had it been a Republican making this ad where they attacked liberal Justices and Democrat voters while holding the deadly weapon. Do you think there will be any attempts to ban Newsom’s social media or censure him like they love doing to right wing politicians?
