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Californians can sue gun dealers, collect $10,000

July 26, 2022

Gov. Gavin Newsom

By JOSH FRIEDMAN

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday signed a bill modeled after a Texas abortion law that will allow Californians to sue those who make, sell, transport or distribute guns that are illegal in the Golden State — and to collect up to $10,000 in damages for doing so.

After the U.S. Supreme Court in January ruled in favor of Texas’s ban on most abortion services, Newsom directed his administration to work with the California Legislature to draft a bill that would allow private citizens to sue anyone who manufactures, distributes, transports, imports into the state or sells assault weapons, .50 BMG rifles, ghost guns or ghost gun kits. Sen. Robert Hertzberg (D-Van Nuys) introduced the legislation, SB 1327, in February.

SB 1327 will allow Californians to sue anyone who manufactures assault weapons, firearms without serial numbers or .50 BMG rifles in California. Likewise, residents will be allowed to sue anyone who sells, transports or distributes such weapons, or the precursor parts to such firearms, in California.

“You cannot sell or manufacture illegal weapons of war in CA,” Newsom stated in a tweet. “And if you do, there are now 40 million people that can collect $10,000 from you for engaging in that illegal activity. We’re using Texas’ perverse abortion law to actually save lives.”

Newsom said in a video announcement that the law will save people’s lives by going after assault rifles, ghost guns and illegal guns and by creating a right of action for individuals to receive up to $10,000 for taking illegal firearms off the streets.

“This is a big deal,” Newsom said in the video. “We are challenging the status quo. We’re moving in a direction no other state has moved in terms of the gun safety movement broadly, not just with this legislation, and we feel a deep sense of responsibility to do so. It’s difficult in Washington, D.C. States now need to step up and meet this moment.”


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This only applies to illegal guns and those who have broken the law.


5

Mr lawyer, sign me up.

Finally i get a chance to go after AR.

I will buy a new bike with the 10k


-44

California already has the strictest gun control laws anywhere. Now he wants ordinary people to sue gun manufacturers? Well, it’s going to take a hell of a lot more than $10,000 to prove a case against Smith & Wesson! Lawyers fees alone would be ten times that much. And who’s going to collect for you if the manufacturer is in another state or another country?

No this sounds like some stupid political stunt. The Texas law doesn’t concern a Constitutional Right, which the Second Amendment IS and abortion ISN’T.

And can someone please tell me if those stupid TV ads Newsom just ran in Florida were paid for by HIS campaign. Or did the State of California pay for it in the guise of a tourism promotion? Because that was truly a political campaign ad, not a tourism promotion. Newsroom is truly an idiot. God help us if he becomes President.


62

So you think Smith and Wesson should be able to sell illegal untraceable guns without any liability to lawsuits? I’m a firm supporter of the second amendment but I do believe private citizens and firearms manufacturers and sellers should have to follow our laws. To suggest that firearms makers and sellers are above the law seems like gun nut logic to me. But if you can explain your logic, please do. Because right now, with what you wrote, I don’t get it.


0

2 wrongs do make it right? Our mom’s lied to us?


-14

What are you talking about


17

This sounds like the ADA scam where people sued businesses for not having all the up dated handicap access. What a bunch of crap how can someone sue who has no damages.


72

The difference is, there is no Constitutional right to an abortion. Roe v Wade was decided on privacy rights, not abortion itself. You still have privacy under the Constitution, and the recent SCOTUS decision returned states rights over abortion.


Hertzberg and Newsom purposely failed to consider Constitutional rights in this illegal regulation. But then, the majority of California’s legislation does too, when it comes to the Bill Of Rights.


57

WTF


35

I believe that Newsom is screwing with Pandora’s box. To morph an application of law into an application of preference has no end, how about suing the county of origin for each undocumented alien that has murdered a U.S. Citizen?


78

Sorry to break this to you (since this article just so happened to leave this point out), but this law is just mirroring the law in Texas passed by Republicans that allows private citizens to sue anyone who “aids or abets” an abortion after six weeks of pregnancy. You should go complain to them.


Newsom is playing a great game. Everyone knows the Texas law will end up in the Supreme Court. Newsom knows this. California’s law will likely be coupled with any case on the Texas law, since the underlaying principle is the same.


If the court tosses Texas and California’s law, it’s a win for the majority of Americans who want reproductive rights. If the court upholds the law, it is a win for the majority of Americans who want less guns here in the country.


-63

What part of the concept of constitutional right do you not understand?


Abortion is not,


Firearms ownership is,


17

It’s just a dog and pony show and you are either being manipulated or trying to manipulate the ignorant. This so called law allows you to sue a gun seller or manufacturer of an already illegal gun. This does not include AR 15s or any other legally made and sold gun. I, on the other hand, am neither a dog or a pony.


7

Majority of Americans don’t want less guns they want better law enforcement of the existing laws.


13

Better yet, go after the home countries of all illegals incarcerated in the US, give the countries the option to imprison the criminals in their home country or pay the cost to keep them in our system. Then watch crime rates fall.

I said illegals because they are imprisoned and even a bed wetting liberal can’t deny that they are illegal.


-2

“California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday signed a bill modeled after a Texas abortion law that will allow Californians to sue those who make, sell, transport or distribute guns that are illegal in the Golden State”


I have a better idea… why don’t we stop the flow of illegal guns before the damage is done with things that work like stop and frisk….. why do what Gavin thinks will work when his plan takes place after the illegal gun has already done its damage….

10,000 for a life of a loved one?… Gavin is a schoolboy…..


1

Seriously? You don’t mind being stopped and frisked?


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