California strikes back. Determined to regulate access to firearms, the Democratic-led state on Friday passed a law allowing citizens to individually sue anyone who manufactures or sells assault rifles on its territory, drawing inspiration from a highly controversial device to deter women from having abortions in Texas.
Last year, well before the Supreme Court of the United States reversed the constitutional right of women to voluntary termination of pregnancy (abortion), the very conservative Texas had decided to entrust citizens with the right to hire civil suits against all organizations and individuals who help women have abortions. Texas law provides that they receive at least $10,000 in damages if convicted in court.
The elected representatives of California, a state with a large Democratic majority, fiercely attached to the right to abortion and in favor of strict regulation of firearms, have decided to use the same legal arsenal to enforce their laws in this area, whether they consider threatened. California Governor Gavin Newsom on Friday signed a law, similar to Texas’ abortion law, that allows citizens to sue anyone who manufactures, sells or transports banned firearms (assault rifles, so-called kit weapons). « ghosts »etc.), again with a compensation of 10,000 dollars at stake.
“We are inspired by Texas. Frankly, if Texas can use citizens’ right to sue to attack women, then we can use that right to make California safer.”launched during a press briefing the Californian senator Anthony Portantino, co-author of this law.
A legal battle on the horizon
The law, which is due to come into force on January 1, 2023, will certainly be challenged in court and will be the subject of numerous appeals by conservative organizations and the gun lobby. But “The Supreme Court opened the door. The Supreme Court said it was OK. It was a terrible decision but these are the rules she established”hammered Governor Newsom.
The highest American court, whose majority of judges appointed for life are conservative, had refused to invalidate the Texas provisions restricting the right to abortion. Last month, the Supreme Court also upheld the right of Americans to go armed in public, invalidating restrictions on the carrying of weapons provided for in a law of the State of New York. Gavin Newsom had judged this decision “shameful” et “dangerous”.
Nearly 400 million guns were in circulation among the civilian population in the United States in 2017, or 120 guns for every 100 people, according to the Small Arms Survey project. Gun violence has claimed more than 24,000 lives, including 13,000 suicides, since the start of the year, according to the Gun Violence Archives website.