California considers allowing citizens to sue illegal firearms distributors in bid to cut gun crime

When Texas passed its bill allowing people to sue other private citizens involved or helping in an abortion last fall, California Governor Gavin Newsom said that his state would follow its example to crack down on illegal firearm sales.

“If states can shield their laws from review by federal courts, then CA will use that authority to help protect lives,” Mr Newsom tweeted in December.

Now, Mr Newsom is attempting to follow through on his promise. Democratic state Sen. Robert Hertzberg, with Mr Newsom’s backing, is expected to introduce legislation that would allow California citizens to sue any person who distributes illegal assault weapons, weapons parts, guns without serial numbers, or .50 caliber rifles.

People found guilty of any of those actions would face fines of at least $10,00 per weapon, plus attorneys’ fees.

The proposed California law is a near-exact replica of the Texas law allowing private citizens to sue other private citizens who perform or help people access abortions, except instead of an attempt to curtail reproductive rights, this is an effort to curb gun violence that continues to plague California — particularly gun violence committed with ghost guns, stolen guns, and other illegal firearms.

Last Sunday, a gunman used what police are describing as a stolen weapon in a shooting spree in downtown Sacramento that left six dead and 12 wounded. Last month, a man used an unregistered, homemade assault weapon to kill his three daughters and their chaperone.

California already has some of the nation’s strictest gun laws, mandating universal background checks and banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines — and while it has led the nation in mass shooting deaths in recent years, its rate of gun deaths per capita is among the nation’s lowest.

Mr Hertzberg’s bill, if passed through the Democratic-controlled statehouse, would potentially give California another tool to fight gun crime with.

“It’s going to have hopefully a chilling effect on folks with ghost guns or assault weapons,” Hertzberg told the Associated Press.

“You’ve got to have millions of eyeballs looking for these guns. If someone flashes one, talks about it, all of a sudden there’s an incentive among the public in a way that there’s never been before to try to pull them off the street.”

Its main objective, however, might be to make people think twice about the Texas anti-abortion law.

Many of the concerns about the Texas law — that it is unconstitutional, encourages defacto bounty-hunting by private citizens, and could be unevenly enforced — could apply to the proposed California bill as well. If that bill is eventually found unconstitutional by courts, the California bill would likely be invalidated as well.

The Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, one of the country’s leading organisations for the prevention of gun violence, has not yet taken a position on the bill.

Sen. Tom Umberg, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, told the AP that he expects Hertzberg’s bill to advance out of his committee.