California Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom is taking his political operation well beyond The Golden State. As if that’s a surprise to anyone remotely paying attention to the 2028 presidential horse race.
The governor has already spent several days this month traveling through South Carolina, the state scheduled to hold the Democrat Party’s first presidential primary in 2028. “Gavin 2028” buttons were sold outside his appearances, political allies openly discussed his national ambitions and the Associated Press described the governor as “staking out a position in the party’s early 2028 field.”
There is an important caveat. Gov. Newsom has not yet announced a presidential campaign. He also said in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sept. 14 that he would not seek the Democrat nomination if former Vice President Kamala Harris enters the race. The failed 2024 Democrat nominee has also not yet announced whether she will run.
Whatever happens in 2028, however, Gov. Newsom’s growing thirst for national office is putting renewed attention on the record he built in California — including an extensive antigun track record and being aggressively hostile towards the Second Amendment.
His California Record Travels with Him
In 2023, Gov. Newsom proposed a 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that called for raising the minimum age to purchase a firearm to 21 and implementing universal background checks and restrictions on commonly owned semiautomatic rifles. NSSF exposed the flagrant civil rights violations within the proposal when Gov. Newsom began openly promoting California-style firearm policies nationally. He quickly backtracked on his plans.
More recently, the governor faced another consequential firearm policy decision with Assembly Bill 1127, which seeks to ban the sale of cruciform-trigger handguns that criminals illegally alter — after illegally obtaining them — by affixing an already illegal “machinegun conversion device” to illegally manufacture a machinegun. NSSF decried the legislation that would ban commonly owned handguns utilized by law-abiding gun owners and most law enforcement officers as Gov. Newsom’s national ambitions were already attracting attention. He subsequently signed AB 1127 in October 2025.
The law took effect on July 1 and restricts retail sales of certain semiautomatic pistols based on their firing mechanisms and the potential that criminals might illegally convert them to fire automatic. The U.S. Department of Justice sued California that same day, challenging AB 1127 along with California’s existing handgun roster, which already severely limits the ability of law-abiding Californians of exercising their rights. DOJ asserts that both laws violate the Second Amendment. That constitutional challenge remains a matter for the courts to resolve.
The issue is particularly significant for firearm owners because handguns are at the core of modern Second Amendment jurisprudence and are commonly used for lawful self-defense. And who remembers when the governor was gifted a handgun when he was a podcast guest without it being clear that the model he was given was California-compliant?
Federal Firearm Policy Is Already in the Fight
Gov. Newsom has also made clear that his gun control agenda is not confined to California.
Last month, he attacked several firearm regulatory proposals from the administration of President Donald Trump and accused the administration of being “squarely in the pocket of criminals.” California agencies filed comments opposing proposed changes to federal firearm regulations.
The actual regulatory proposals are more specific than that rhetoric suggests. NSSF praised the proposal of 34 specific changes to regulations that identified and proposed fixes to punitive regulations including many published during the Biden administration, when the ATF was used as a political weapon to force policies intended to hobble the firearm industry and infringe on Second Amendment rights. The rulemaking package also addressed several inefficient and burdensome regulations that increased compliance costs for the industry but which did not aid ATF in achieving its primary mission on combatting violent crime.
The rulemaking changes are comprised of priorities NSSF has long championed including, recissions of the Biden ATF’s “Engaged in the Business,” bump stock and stabilizing pistol brace final rules, changes to ATF record retentions that have no law enforcement utility, providing a clearer definition of what constitutes a “willful” violation of the Gun Control Act and an illegal straw purchase of a firearm and elimination of the requirement to notify the chief law enforcement officer for purchases of items regulated by the National Firearms Act.
But Gov. Newsom’s response was noteworthy because it provides another indication of how he would approach firearm regulation when the policy discussion moves beyond California.
Know Their Records And #GUNVOTE
The possibility of either Gov. Newsom or former Vice President Harris entering the 2028 presidential contest also presents a familiar policy picture.
NSSF has extensively examined former Vice President Harris’ gun control record during the Biden administration, when she was tasked with leading The White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, and her failed 2024 presidential campaign. More recently, NSSF has noted her renewed political activity and gun control platform as speculation about 2028 intensifies.
Gov. Newsom’s record has received similar scrutiny. NSSF previously, and has repeatedly, examined his proposed failed constitutional amendment efforts, his public statements about Second Amendment rights and his decision on California’s cruciform-trigger handgun legislation. In sum, there’s never been a gun control proposal he didn’t love. Despite his assertions that “I’m not anti-gun at all!”
His record provides concrete policy history against which any future campaign positions he takes can be measured.
That is where NSSF’s #GUNVOTE initiative comes in.
#GUNVOTE provides voter education resources designed to help eligible voters register and evaluate federal office candidates’ positions on Second Amendment issues.
The 2028 presidential election remains more than two years away and the Democratic field is unsettled. Gov. Newsom has not declared his candidacy and his latest comments make former Vice President Harris’ eventual decision relevant to his own.
His gun control record, however, is crystal clear and is already extensive and publicly documented.
As prospective candidates build their national profiles, firearm owners can examine what those officials have signed, proposed, defended and challenged — and use that record to make informed decisions at the ballot box. Don’t Risk Your Rights. #GUNVOTE.
Larry Keane is SVP for Government and Public Affairs, Assistant Secretary and General Counsel of the National Shooting Sports Foundation.
