Editor’s note: Breaking views are thoughts from individual members of the editorial board on today’s headlines.

Proposals to curtail the Second Amendment rights of young adults in California were approved by Senate and Assembly Public Safety Committees this week.

On June 19, the Senate committee approved Assembly Bill 3, Assemblyman Rob Bonta, D-Oakland, which seeks to raise the minimum age of firearms purchases to 21. On the same day, legislation doing the same via Senate Bill 1100 from Sen. Anthony Portantino, D-La Cañada Flintridge, cleared the Assembly’s committee.

These proposals are fundamentally a slap in the face to law-abiding Californians and a rejection of the constitutional rights of Americans.

During the Senate hearing for SB1100, it was quite apparent that Portantino didn’t really have much of a case.

Craig DeLuz from the Firearms Policy Coalition pointed out at the hearing one of the absurd consequenses of what Portantino and Bonta are proposing. While young adults can be sent off to war in other countries with firearms, under the proposal of Bonta and Portantino, these same young adults would be unable to exercise their constitutional rights to defend themselves here at home.

Others at the hearing raised the point that it doesn’t make sense to single out the Second Amendment rights of 18-20 year olds. The Second Amendment is as much a right as the right to vote. And even the consequentialist arguments that 18-20 year olds being disproportionately involved in violent gun crimes doesn’t warrant curtailing their rights anymore than raising the age at which young adults should be able to drive because of how many accidents young people get into.

But rather than address the fact that the constitutional rights of Californians are at stake, Portantino regurgitated tired, self-serving talking points about how the rights of law-abiding Californians should be infringed upon because some of the activist survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting think that’s the right thing to do.

Of course, Portantino just breezes Parkland survivors like Kyle Kashuv who defend the Second Amendment. Portantino’s interest is in curtailing the Second Amendment rights, so only those whose views are convenient apparently matter.

Raising the age to buy a gun is asinine. If you're old enough to join the army, you're old enough to defend yourself with a weapon; if you're a single mother at 19, why shouldn't you be able to buy a weapon to defend your family? — Kyle Kashuv (@KyleKashuv) March 25, 2018

As I have previously written, proposals to raise the minimum age at which young adults may defend themselves is just another infantilizing overreach by government. Fundamentally, what is being communicated is the right to defend oneself is subject to the political whims of politicians.

Preferably, these proposals will fail to advance. If they don’t, I hope Sam Paredes from Gun Owners of California is correct and a lawsuit will be filed to stop Sacramento from further encroaching on the Second Amendment rights of Californians.

Sal Rodriguez is an editorial writer and columnist for the Southern California News Group. He may be reached at salrodriguez@scng.com