Gavin Newsom to help Californians sue gunmakers in response to Texas abortion law

California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Saturday he is working on a bill that would help private citizens sue manufacturers, distributors, and sellers of assault weapons or ghost gun kits.

Newsom’s bill will allow private citizens to sue “anyone who manufactures, distributes, or sells an assault weapon or ghost gun kit or parts in the State of California” for at least $10,000.

Newsom said he was responding to a Supreme Court decision made Friday that allowed a controversial abortion law in Texas to stand. The law bans all abortions after six weeks of pregnancy and invites ordinary citizens, rather than state officials, to enforce it by suing abortion providers or anyone who helps someone get an abortion.

“I am outraged by yesterday’s US Supreme Court decision allowing Texas’s ban on most abortion services to remain in place, and largely endorsing Texas’s scheme to insulate its law from the fundamental protections of Roe v. Wade.” Newsom said

Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) released the following statement: “Our brief in Jackson v. Whole Woman’s Health predicted that tyrants like Gavin Newsom would use the Texas model against fundamental human rights including the freedom of speech and the right to keep and bear arms. We built FPC Law (FPCLaw.org), the nation’s first and largest public interest legal team focused on the right to keep and bear arms, to be the leader in the Second Amendment litigation and research space, capable of quickly responding to policy changes like those Newsom proposed.”

The statement continued: “Just as FPC secured a trial judgment against the State of California’s unconstitutional ban on so-called “assault weapons” in our Miller v. Bonta case before Judge Roger T. Benitez, we are prepared to litigate these important issues in state courts and then up to the U.S. Supreme Court.”

“FPC will not only fight Newsom’s war on human rights head-on, we will also actively undermine it through cultural change and empowerment until his authoritarian policies are as irrelevant and impotent as Newsom himself. And Newsom’s unconstitutional ‘wish list’ may be entirely irrelevant soon anyway.”

The statement concluded, saying, *0“Days from now we will be petitioning for Supreme Court review in our Bianchi v. Frosh lawsuit challenging Maryland’s ban on so-called “assault weapons,” a legal scheme much like California’s. Bianchi is an ideal case for the Supreme Court to address these issues once and for all, and we look forward to continuing to execute our mission in the coming months and years. If Gavin Newsom wants to play a game of constitutional chicken, we will prevail.”