By Emily Hoeven
This week, Gov. Gavin Newsom is poised to sign a bill on his desk that would create a “standard of conduct” for the gun industry — and permit California residents, the state attorney general and local governments to sue noncompliant manufacturers, retailers and distributors.
Once signed, it’s almost certain to be hit with legal challenges. On Friday, guns rights groups sued to block a California law banning firearm companies from advertising certain weapons to minors — which Newsom had signed just the week before.
- Chuck Michel, president of the California Rifle & Pistol Association, a plaintiff in the suit, told the Orange County Register: “This law is a clear First Amendment violation of speech and assembly. … It’s really an attempt to wipe out the next generation of hunters and shooters. Politicians in Sacramento are not even trying to hide their disdain for the ‘gun culture,’ which they neither understand nor support. They want to wipe it out.”
- Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office told Reuters it plans to “take any and all action under the law to defend California’s commonsense gun laws.”
The lawsuit is the latest chapter in a long-running feud between the gun industry and the Golden State over its strictest-in-the-nation firearm laws. But the fight seems primed to escalate following last month’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling dramatically expanding gun rights — and a growing divide between red and blue states as each side seems intent on remaking the nation in its image and litigating what residents can and can’t do in other states.
- For example: Newsom recently signed an executive order to protect the personal information of out-of-state women coming to California to seek abortions who may face lawsuits or investigations from states restricting the procedure.
But one of California’s own laws has come under scrutiny following Newsom’s Fourth of July trip to his in-laws’ ranch in Montana, which I was the first to report. (Newsom returned to California on Saturday, according to his office.) Montana is one of 22 states to which California has banned state-funded and state-sponsored travel, citing policies it deems discriminatory to LGBTQ+ people.
Newsom’s vacation was not paid for by the state, and although he likely had a state-funded security detail accompany him to Montana, a California Highway Patrol spokesperson said the travel ban includes exemptions “for the protection of public health, welfare, or safety.”
But the governor’s trip nevertheless highlighted the “ineffective” nature of the travel ban — which state lawmakers should consider repealing, the Los Angeles Times editorial board argued Sunday: “It’s created a raft of bureaucratic work-arounds inside state government and thwarted some academic research — without achieving demonstrable economic impact on the offending states” or discouraging “red states from passing discriminatory laws.”
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The DPSRC government is a hotbed of stupidity. Let’s ban advertising of guns to minors. You mean a group of people that can’t legally buy them anyway? What are the ads going to say anyway? Hey kids, when you’re out there stealing guns, make sure it’s an Ingram MAC-10. You’ll be glad you did.
Suing manufacturers and dealers? As long as the sales on both levels are within the law, what’s there to sue over? Someone misused the gun? That’s on the person, not the dealer or the maker. Is Ruger or Smith and Wesson or Turner’s going to be required to hire someone to follow around everybody that buys a gun to make sure they don’t misuse it?
It’s high time for morons like Newsolini and Bonta to shut up and go away, and let American citizens (and lawful permanent residents) exercise their Constitutional rights.