SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — Gun-rights advocates are pushing for a California constitutional amendment to ensure every law-abiding citizen has the right to own, carry, and fire a gun.

Backers of the California Gun Rights Act have approval from the secretary of state to begin collecting 800,000 valid signatures for their measure, which they plan to begin doing in mid-January

“It’s our duty, and the legislature’s, and the governor’s to protect and defend our rights, and they are not doing it,” said organizer Robert Carrell.

He contends instead that the state is fixated on new laws to take limit those rights.

“They want to take away our ammunition, our accessories, our clips,” he said. “They want to tax ammunition. They want to make it harder for us to bear arms.”

Gun control advocates say those new laws are saving lives.

Amanda Wilcox with the Brady Campaign lost her daughter in a 2001 mass shooting at the Nevada County Behavioral Health Clinic.

“We know gun laws work. Studies have shown that states with stronger gun laws have fewer gun deaths,” she said. “Many of us feel that military-style weapons do not have a place in our streets in California.”

Carrell says this is the type of regulation that gun advocates say they will fight.

“The laws they continue to pass just continue to restrict law-abiding citizens,” he said. “They don’t do anything to stop the gun violence.”