Governor Gavin Newsom wants a new law in his state that allows Californians to sue gun manufacturers just like Texas is permitting private citizens to sue abortion providers. The move comes after the Supreme Court upheld a Texas law, known as SB 8, that effectively bans abortion in the state. The New York Times writes:
In a statement released on Saturday evening, Mr. Newsom said he had instructed his staff to work with California’s Legislature and attorney general to write a bill that would let citizens sue anyone who “manufactures, distributes, or sells an assault weapon or ghost gun kit or parts” in California. The governor called for damages of at least $10,000 per violation, plus costs and attorney’s fees.
“If the most efficient way to keep these devastating weapons off our streets is to add the threat of private lawsuits, we should do just that,” Mr. Newsom said in the statement.
The Los Angeles Times adds:
[B]y not striking down the Texas anti-abortion law, which relies on private citizens for enforcement, Newsom argued that the court has endorsed states’ ability to create similar legal mechanisms to safeguard laws from federal court review. In his statement Saturday, Newsom referred to a recent federal court decision that overturned the state’s ban on assault rifles in which the judge compared the weapons to a Swiss Army knife.
“If states can now shield their laws from review by the federal courts that compare assault weapons to Swiss Army knives, then California will use that authority to protect people’s lives, where Texas used it to put women in harm’s way,” Newsom said.
The Texas Heartbeat Act (SB 8) declares that it is illegal for abortions to be performed after six weeks of pregnancy. But as the LA Times writes, “it gives the state no direct role in enforcing that ban. Instead, it authorizes private lawsuits in state courts against doctors or clinic owners who violate its provisions. The new California anti-gun effort, Newsom said, would function the same way.”
Gun-rights groups have feared this is exactly what would happen and it’s why they filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court in support of abortion providers. The Texas Tribune explains:
The concern was first introduced in court by the Firearms Policy Coalition, a California-based nonprofit that advocates and defends gun rights laws nationally. The group authored an amicus brief — a type of filing offering information to the court but provided by an entity that isn’t a party to the case — in support of abortion providers, who presented arguments before the high court to block Texas’ abortion restriction law, commonly referred to as Senate Bill 8.
Melissa Murray, a professor at the New York University School of Law, called gun rights advocates’ support for abortion providers a case of “strange bedfellows.”
“It’s like, ‘Today it’s abortion, tomorrow it’s us,’” she said. “I’m sure they see the writing on the wall — if this can happen in Texas, what’s to stop California from doing something on the Second Amendment?”