CA23: Jay Obernolte Plan to Stop Gun Violence: Thoughts, Prayers, and Zero Action

Another school. Another locked-down campus. Another pair of students arrested for walking into Mesa Ridge High School with a handgun. School shootings are becoming so common that it almost standard practice. 

This is another blatant warning that our system is broken. However, it’s business as usual for Rep. Jay Obernolte, who strongly supports the Second Amendment while voting against even the most modest reforms. Let’s go through the Obernolte’s track record. Because it matters which lawmakers refuse to act when students bring real guns into classrooms. 

Yes, you’ll hear this preferred dodge: “We need more mental health resources.” As if that magically prevents a kid from grabbing a firearm. If it were solely a mental health issue, other democracies with robust mental health infrastructure wouldn’t have zero-tolerance school shootings. They do not.

Jay Obernolte claims to support common sense reforms to our justice system. Yet he’s opposed to almost all gun-control bills, and he’s voted NO on the Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2021 and the Safer Communities Act. 

Obernolte holds an anti-gun control stance in surveys, and he has opposed background checks for private transfers. So, when he says, criminals don’t follow laws, that conveniently becomes a full excuse for not passing laws in the first place.

Don’t create new laws, just enforce the laws we already have sounds like a moderate position. But in practice, it’s a smokescreen. Because many existing laws have loopholes or have had their penalties weakened. Obernolte has repeatedly voted against strengthening laws or closing gaps. 

2nd Amendment absolutism is where Obernolte is most consistent. He brands himself a “Constitutional conservative” and staunchly opposes government intrusion into individual liberties, including gun ownership. He voted against lifting conceal-carry fee caps, opposed background checks for private transfers, and holds pro-gun ratings from NRA and GOA.  Yet he never explains why any right must exclude basic safety measures. The First Amendment doesn’t allow lynch mobs; the Second shouldn’t protect unrestricted access either.

Obernolte certainly hasn’t been calling for serious gun-law reform. Rather than reform guns, he would prefer turning schools into mini–Fort Knox: metal detectors, armed guards, cameras, panic buttons. Anything but regulating the weapons that show up in classrooms.

At Mesa Ridge, two students armed themselves and entered school grounds. They were arrested before they fired a shot. But how many near-misses go unreported?

As Obernolte’s record shows: he’s more committed to blocking reforms than protecting students.

Photo by Jay Rembert on Unsplash