Since the Supreme Court has given Texas the green light for its new legal approach that all but bans abortions, Gov. Gavin Newsom says, California will use the same theory to curtail guns — letting private citizens sue people who sell assault rifles and parts for untraceable “ghost guns.”
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!“SCOTUS is letting private citizens in Texas sue to stop abortion?!,” Newsom tweeted Saturday. “If that’s the precedent then we’ll let Californians sue those who put ghost guns and assault weapons on our streets.”
State officials will try to craft a measure that would allow residents to seek damages of at least $10,000, plus legal fees, against anyone who manufactures, distributes or sells an assault weapon or ghost gun kit in California.
“If states can now shield their laws from review by the federal courts that compare assault weapons to Swiss Army knives,” Newsom said in a news release late Saturday, “then California will use that authority to protect people’s lives, where Texas used it to put women in harm’s way.”
In seizing on Texas’s successful approach, Newsom’s plan is likely to attract controversy along the lines of what embroiled lawmakers there after they banned all abortions after a heartbeat is detected, usually around six weeks into a pregnancy. The new law, which is already spurring droves of women to seek abortion access in California and other states, is unique in relying on enabling private citizens to sue abortion providers for the same amount Newsom is proposing in his new gun measure, $10,000.
President Biden criticized that citizen litigation path as the “most pernicious” aspect of the Texas abortion law because, he said, it creates “a sort of vigilante system” by encouraging the public to police the issue.
Newsom’s office billed his gun announcement as a direct response to Friday’s Supreme Court decision that largely allowed the Texas abortion measure to stand.
Jessica Levinson, a Supreme Court expert who teaches constitutional law at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, told The Chronicle that Newsom is hoping again to be a “quarter step ahead of public opinion and one step ahead of where he can go legally,” as he was in his support of same-sex marriage and legalization of marijuana.
“He is proposing to use a mechanism that he and many others have vilified. But I think it’s quite smart, right? I think it’s a big ‘F— you’ to the Supreme Court,” Levinson said. “If you’re going to allow unconstitutional laws — or I should say in this case, constitutionally questionable laws — that are insulated from judicial review, then we’re going to use that to our advantage.”
Newsom gave few details about his plan. Its prospects in the Legislature were not clear.
Assembly Member Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, said Sunday that he has been working with the nonprofit Brady Campaign,which advocates for gun control, on similar legislation that he plans to introduce when the Legislature reconvenes in January.
Ting called it “a very simple issue”: The gun industry “needs to be held liable” for the use of firearms to commit crimes, or gun-related “incidents that result in injury or death.” Almost every other industry in this country is held liable for what their products do,” he said.
Ting said he “fully supports the governor’s statement,” on guns and hopes the Legislature’s Democratic supermajority will get the proposal passed.
State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, said Sunday that it’s too soon to say what lawmakers will do, but noted that the supermajority has passed “very, very strong gun safety measures.” The governor and Legislature agree that “we’ll do whatever we can to drain the gun swamp, to reduce the number of guns in our society, particularly assault weapons,” he said in a phone interview.
Click here to read the full article at the San Francisco Chronicle
“Almost every other industry in this country is held liable for what their products do.”
Well, not so much.
We see recalls and lawsuits when the products do not perform as they were designed to do.
But when can we sue automakers for the misuse of their vehicles by ignorant, careless or malicious drivers to cause “incidents that result in injury or death.” ? Or by gangs of criminals during smash-and-grab attacks on merchants, “incidents that result in injury or death” ?
Or the makers of kitchen knives when their products are weapons of choice during “incidents that result in injury or death” by domestic violence? Or the drug manufacturers whose products are misused either accidentally or on purpose in “incidents that result in injury or death” to human beings and animals?
Drain the ANTI-gun swamp, Gov. Newsom. Keep the gun-totin’ lowlifes inside the jails to complete their sentences. Defend your law-abiding constituents against murder and mayhem. Act like a hero instead of a hypocrite.
This is a typical left wing talking point. Assault weapons (described at fully automatic weapons- pull the trigger The AR 15 (MP4) which is a semi-automatic R I F L E like any other rifle out there for sale but which is not as powerful as many other rifles that are sold.
Same old stupid comments about those bad bad assault rifles.
This guys is a clown who capitalizes on every possible opportunity to control the residents of his state. Imagine if he (and his ilk) were to put that imagination to work doing good. Life in Ca would become what it once was….
Newsom makes a false argument. The Second Amendment gives citizens the constitutional right to bear arms. No where in the constitution is there a right to abortion.
There is zero equivalency between the two.
FYI. The 2nd Amendment does not give people the right to bear arms. It states that the right to bear arms SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED upon by any and all bastards who seek to do so.
It is time for a “Go Fund Me account to give Pretty Boy a convertible ride past the Texas School Book Depository! Go Brandon Newsom! But then who voted for him? Raise your hands, fools!
The first thing that came to mind, does Slick have a heart beat?
If you look at the back tracking and double talking he has done since getting in office the answer is NO.
You voted for him. He has lied to you who voted for him.
Get the drift?
Oh sure! Every other industry is liable for the acts of third parties. That must be why we see so many automakers sued for the acts of drunk drivers, not to mention the distillers or liquor stores sued because someone got drunk and chose to get behind the wheel and kill someone with their vehicle.
Geez Newsom….get a CLUE!
Newsom is a low life. He has destroyed CA.
He is not alone in what has been and still is the long term plan to destroy this state and the nation.
Typical leftist, Gavin prefers political theater over substance with the main focus on misplaced and corrupted emotion. Theater to hide the goal of domination and control.
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