California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed a gun law on Friday modeled after Texas recent abortion ban.
According to CNN, this new law allows a person to sue a licensed firearms dealer who “sells, supplies, delivers, or gives possession or control of a firearm” to anyone under 21 years old. It allows citizens to sue for a minimum of $10,000 on each weapon involved, as well as attorney fees.
“Our message to the criminals spreading illegal weapons in California is simple: you have no safe harbor here in the Golden State, ” Newsom said at a press conference on Friday. “While the Supreme Court rolls back reasonable gun safety measures, California continues adding new ways to protect the lives of our kids. California will use every tool at its disposal to save lives, especially in the face of an increasingly extreme Supreme Court.”
Newsom directed his staff to draft the bill modeled after the Texas abortion ban after the US Supreme Court allowed the abortion ban to take effect. The Texas abortion ban incentivizes private citizens to sue anyone who assist a pregnant person to get an abortion after six weeks of pregnancy.
Newsom’s press conference was at Santa Monica College, the site of a 2013 mass shooting that took the lives of five people. The gunman used an unserialized AR-15 rifle built using legally purchased components, a ghost gun that would be subject to lawsuit.
