Newsom Ballot Measure Would Toughen California Gun Control

Updated 4:15 p.m. Thursday

Amid a growing national debate over gun control and gun rights, California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom is proposing a 2016 ballot initiative that would ask voters to strengthen the state's firearms laws.

Newsom's proposal comes just two weeks after a gunman killed nine people at a Roseburg, Oregon, community college, the latest in a long series of mass shootings that have prompted calls for action from President Obama and others.

"This is about taking responsibility," Newsom said in an interview after a Financial District press conference to announce his initiative. "... All of this has happened on our watch -- 150 school shootings since [the 2012 Newtown school massacre]. More preschoolers that have been shot -- literally preschoolers -- than police officers in the line of duty. I mean, it's just an abomination."

Newsom's proposal calls for background checks on all ammunition purchases, certification of all ammunition sellers, the surrender of large-capacity assault-style magazines and new requirements for reporting lost or stolen guns. The proposal also calls for state officials to set up a clear process to make felons who are not allowed to have guns turn in their weapons.

"Remarkably, there's no prohibition on who can sell ammunition," Newsom said. "Literally, if a fast-food chain decided to go into the ammunition business, there's no law on the books prohibiting them."

The new measure would limit ammunition sales to licensed dealers and, in the first provision of its kind in the United States, subject ammunition buyers to the same background checks to which California gun purchasers are subject.

"If it's good enough for guns, it's good enough for ammunition," Newsom said.

Newsom, a Democratic former mayor of San Francisco now running for governor, announced his initiative campaign near the site of the 101 California massacre.

That mass shooting on July 1, 1993, was the bloodiest in San Francisco history: a gunman carrying two semi-automatic assault weapons killed eight people and wounded six. The killings led to a wave of state and federal legislation to limit the availability of automatic and semi-automatic firearms.

Polls have long shown that Californians believe it's more important to toughen controls on gun ownership than to safeguard the right to own a gun. A February 2013 Field Poll -- conducted just two months after a gunman killed 20 first-graders in a Connecticut school massacre -- suggested that support for gun control in the state was growing.

That survey found 61 percent thought stronger gun control was more important than gun rights; 34 percent said gun rights were more important.

This post includes reporting from The Associated Press.