California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday signed a bill into law that allows private citizens to bring a civil action against anyone who manufactures, distributes, transports or imports assault weapons or ghost guns, which are banned in the state.
California Senate Bill 1327 is modelled after a Texas law that allows private citizens to bring civil litigation against abortion providers or anyone who assists a pregnant person in obtaining an abortion after as early as six weeks of pregnancy. The US Supreme Court in December allowed Texas' six-week abortion ban to remain in effect, which prompted Newsom, who has been supportive of abortion rights and pro-gun control, to say he was "outraged" by the court's decision and direct his staff to draft a similar bill to regulate guns.
Under California law, a person would also be able 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.
Newsom, a Democrat, on Friday acknowledged that the law would likely be challenged in court.
"We believe this will be litigated in the Supreme Court and we believe the Supreme Court will be challenged. Because if there's any principle left whatsoever -- and that's an open-ended question -- with this Supreme Court, there is no way they can deny us the right to move in this direction," he said after signing the bill at Santa Monica College, the site of a 2013 shooting spree.
The law, introduced in February, says that it would become "inoperative upon invalidation" of the Texas abortion law, should the US Supreme Court or Texas Supreme Court strike down that measure. The California law would then be "repealed on January 1 of the following year."
The US Supreme Court last month ruled that the Constitution protects the right to carry a gun outside the home, and in striking down a New York gun carry restriction, allowing for all sorts of gun safety laws to be challenged in federal court. The decision will likely impact legal challenges to California's assault weapons ban, its ban on magazines holding more than 10 rounds and its prohibition on keeping people under the age of 21 from purchasing certain semi-automatic weapons.
California has passed several gun measures this month aimed at curbing gun violence in the wake of several mass shootings across the nation, including a mass shooting on July 4 in downtown Sacramento and a mass shooting in the same city just three months before.