California Governor Gavin Newsom said that he was planning to design a law that would let private citizens sue a few gun manufacturers, distributors and sellers. The law will be designed around the controversial U.S. Supreme Court ruling on strict abortion curbs that were enacted as law by Texas.
On Friday, the Supreme Court allowed a Texas ban on most abortions to remain. The law lets private citizens sue anyone who “aids or abets” in an abortion. It deputizes private citizens to sue clinics and others for at least $10,000 if they win their lawsuit.
The Texas law in the Republican dominated state was framed in such a manner that it avoided making state officials responsible for the legislation and made it the responsibility of ordinary people. According to Reuters, the court ruled that legal challenges may proceed against the measure; however, they allowed the Texas law to remain in effect. Critics termed this as vigilante justice.
On Saturday, Newsom said that he and his team would work with the state Attorney General Rob Bonta and the legislature. They would draft a proposal that was similar to the Texas law. The new law in California would allow citizens to sue those who manufactured, sold or distributed “an assault weapon or ghost gun kit or parts.” They could sue for at least $10,000 per violation, plus costs as well as attorney’s fees.
The governor said that if the threat of private lawsuits could efficiently keep devastating weapons of the streets of California then the Democrats in the Golden State should enact such a law.
He also said that if states could shield their laws from review by the federal courts that compare assault weapons to Swiss Army knives, then California would use that authority to protect peoples lives, where Texas had used it “to put women in harm’s way.”
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