You may recall Gavin Newsom, formerly the Mayor of San Francisco who made national headlines by getting out way ahead of the curve on gay marriage. He was an instant star of the Democratic Party and has since moved on to the position of Lt. Governor. With an eye on the boss’ chair next time around, he’s found a new issue to champion, specifically doing whatever can be managed to hinder the rights of gun owners in his state. His latest effort is to mandate background checks… not on guns, but on ammunition. (New American)

California’s lt. governor, Gavin Newsom, announced that his ballot measure offered last fall — which includes background checks to buy ammunition, along with a host of other restrictions on gun owners — has already gathered 600,000 signatures, more than enough to put it on the ballot in November. Said Newsom, who is running for governor in 2018, “What makes guns dangerous is ammunition. Yet we don’t do background checks on ammo.”

What he failed to mention is that a gun is an inanimate object, just like ammunition. If danger exists, it’s with the person holding it. But that doesn’t matter to Newsom, who added that background checks on ammunition would stop sales of ammunition to criminals and others who are prohibited from owning firearms.

Newsom’s rallying cry is that the ammunition is the most dangerous part of the gun. No… seriously. Don’t ask me. I just work here.

In any event, one group of gun rights supporters is attempting to head Newsom off at the pass with a new series of ads promoting the rights of gun owners and the generally useless nature of legally owned firearms with no ammunition in them. As Time Magazine reports, the Coalition for Civil Liberties is out with the first of a series of television spots designed to reach specific demographic groups in the Golden State and they seem to be pretty well done. Here’s the first one, geared toward women who carry to defend themselves from attackers.

Richard Grenell, the GOP operative behind the ads, said the group is aiming to upset the traditional Democratic coalition in an effort to defeat the proposal. Newsom came under fire last month for suggesting that a trans woman and member of the LGBT firearm advocacy group Pink Pistols who appeared in a web ad opposed to the measure was being ‘used‘ by pro-gun groups.

“Because Gavin’s latest proposal goes too far and tramples on personal freedoms, he has opened up a real opportunity for those of us who believe in more civil liberties,” Grenell told TIME. “Gavin is losing the traditional Democrat coalitions like women, the working class and the LGBT community who are challenging the progressive idea that the government should be the center of our lives.”

An interesting approach. While I know there’s some pushback in the female shooter community over the whole “pink handguns” thing, it still seems to be popular with at least some female shooters. The ad is pretty well done, relying on dark imagery and mood music rather than voice over work, and the production values are excellent. The next ad will be geared toward the California LGBT community and I’ll confess I’m curious to see how they handle that one.

For more information and to see the rest of their material, visit the Where’s My Ammo website.