Newsom wants to let private California citizens sue gun dealers, similar to Texas abortion ban California Gov. Gavin Newsom addresses a press conference at a COVID-19 vaccination site at Dodger Stadium on Friday, Jan. 15, 2021 in Los Angeles (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times/TNS)
If the U.S. Supreme Court will allow private citizens in Texas to sue over abortion, it ought to allow private citizens in California to sue over gun violence, Gov. Gavin Newsom said.
The governor on Friday backed a series of bills aimed at tightening gun control rules and closing ghost gun loopholes. Among them are two bills that would allow individuals to take action against the gun industry.
Newsom first brought up the idea in December after Texas lawmakers passed a bill allowing private citizens to sue people who get abortions or help others get abortions. After the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Texas law, the California governor vowed to work with the Legislature on a bill that mimics the one in Texas, but works in the favor of gun violence victims.
“If Texas can use a law to ban a woman’s right to choose and to put her health at risk, we will use that same law to save lives and improve the health and safety of the people in the state of California,” Newsom said at a press conference in San Diego on Friday.
“There is no principled way the U.S. Supreme Court cannot uphold this California law. Full stop. It is quite literally modeled after the law they just upheld.”
The new bill, introduced by state Sen. Robert Hertzberg, D-Van Nuys, would allow private citizens to sue anyone who manufactures, distributes, transports, imports into the state or sells assault weapons, .50 caliber BMG sniper rifles, ghost guns, or ghost gun kits.
“In a just world, a woman’s right to choose would be sacrosanct, and California’s people would be protected from ghost guns and assault weapons. Sadly, a misguided Supreme Court decision has turned common sense on its head,” Hertzberg said. “With this bill, we take advantage of the court’s flawed logic to protect all Californians and save lives.”
Last month, lawmakers introduced Assembly Bill 1594, authored by Democratic Assemblymen Phil Ting, Chris Ward and Mike Gipson, which would allow individuals and the California Attorney General to pursue legal action in California courts against irresponsible, reckless or negligent gun manufacturers, importers and dealers.
A federal law passed in 2005 protects firearm manufacturers and dealers from being held liable when crimes have been committed with their products. Ting on Friday said the California bill is an effort to hold the industry accountable.
“With great power comes great responsibility,” Ting said. “Every industry is held responsible for the products that they sell, except for one, and that’s the gun industry. Here in our state what we hope to do is make that industry accountable for the guns they put on our streets every single day.“
Newsom is also backing Assembly Bill 2571 by Assemblywoman Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, D-Orinda, which proposes to identify certain categories of weapons, like semi-automatic weapons, that cannot be marketed to minors under any circumstances. He also highlighted Assembly Bill 1621 by Gipson to further restrict ghost guns, those firearms assembled from kits and without serial numbers, in California.
Second Amendment advocates have criticized Newsom and other California Democrats for targeting gun owners and businesses. The California Rifle and Pistol Association said it doubts a bill like AB 1594 would be constitutional given the federal protection over firearm commerce.
“If Newsom really believes the legislature should pass anti-gun legislation along the lines of the Texas law, it would be an unprecedented escalation of California’s hostility to firearms rights and the 2A community,” the CRPA said in December. “Law-abiding gun owners and businesses are not the cause of criminal misuse of firearms. Yet Newsom and other anti-gun politicians seem to believe the threat of frivolous lawsuits will somehow address their own failures.”
When asked on Friday if he is worried about a ballot initiative from the gun industry overturning the bill that allows private right of action against manufacturers and distributors, Newsom said, “Bring it on.”
“If they do it, they will be crushed,” he said. “The public has no patience for these purveyors of violence and death.”
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